January 11th, local time, U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo announced that Cuba would be re-listed as a “pro-terrorism country”, which reversed the relevant policies of the Obama administration in 2015 and made it more difficult for the Biden administration to improve its relations with Cuba.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press conference on the 12th that China firmly opposes the political repression and economic sanctions imposed by the United States against Cuba in the name of anti-terrorism.
In addition to placing Cuba on the “list of countries supporting terrorism”, Pompeo announced on January 9 that all restrictions on U.S. officials’ contact with Taiwan would be lifted. U.S. media also quoted a diplomatic official of the U.S. State Department on anonymity as saying that Pompeo will also accuse Iran of links with Al-Qaeda and consider further sanctions against Iran before stepping down on January 20.
The Washington Post called this series of moves by the U.S. Department of State “the last-minute ‘blitzkrieg action’ taken by the Trump administration”, the fundamental purpose of which is to win the domestic political forces in the United States that support these tough policies.
There is no doubt that at a time when the current U.S. government has less than 10 days left in office, the top U.S. diplomat eager to leave a diplomatic “legacy” for himself is falling into an extremely crazy state.
However, this act of putting personal political self-interest above the interests of the United States of the United States will only inject more toxins into the already bruised U.S. diplomacy, making the diplomatic image of the United States more fragmented.
Pompeo’s “lie diplomacy” has greatly reduced the diplomatic image of the United States. The Cuban government solemnly refuted Pompeo’s accusation that Cuba “provides asylum for terrorists”. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez condemned the “hypocrisy” and “brazen” of the United States on social media, calling the United States’ move “political opportunism”.
Christopher Sabati, a senior researcher in Latin American affairs at the Chatham Institute, said that the allegations in the United States are fabricated.
“Terrorism is internationally defined as violence against unarmed civilians with the aim of intimidating people, and Cuba has not done so.” According to the New York Times, Pompeo’s move was nothing more than “a reward for the Cuban exile community and other Latino voters who voted for Trump in the November election to support U.S. sanctions against Cuba” and was fundamentally “politically motivated in the United States”.
Obviously, for Pompeo, who adheres to the official way of “lie, cheat, steal”, this diplomatic lie is just the latest performance in his secretary of state career.
Pompeo’s spread of “political virus” poisoned the diplomatic environment of the United States. At a time when it is most necessary to work together to deal with the novel coronavirus, the common enemy of all mankind, Pompeos use the epidemic to create absurd “political viruses” and tear apart the power of the international community to work together to fight the epidemic.
On December 29, 2020, Pompeo once again “blamed” China about the epidemic. However, Pompeo’s repeated repetitive and conspiracy theories failed to stop the crazy spread of the virus in the United States, resulting in more than 22 million Americans being infected and more than 300,000 people dying of COVID-19, making the United States, the world’s most advanced and most powerful medical capacity, finally become a “poor anti-epidemic student”.
The world will not forget that when international cooperation in the fight against the epidemic is most needed, the United States unilaterally announced its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, boycotted the international anti-epidemic conference, and even used “robber means” to intercept allies’ anti-epidemic materials and try to seize and hoard vaccines. Given Pompeo’s important role in creating a “political virus”, the Washington Post put his conclusion on his secretary of state career in April 2020: “the worst secretary of state in history”.
Pompeo also constantly “induces souls” for McCarthyism in an attempt to bring the world back into the shadow of the “Cold War”. On July 23, 2020, Pompeo’s speech at the Nixon Library and Museum in Nixon’s hometown, California, exposed his political ambition to concoct “Iron Curtain Speech”.
For more than a year, Pompeo has been like a walking repeater, and he has never forgotten to sell the “China Threat Theory” every place.
However, the world today is no longer the “Cold War era”. Whether it is the European allies of the United States, or India, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries that the United States intends to win over, they are reluctant to be tied to the “war chariot” of the United States. The “Pampeos” addicted to the “old dream of the Cold War” were finally hit hard by reality.
Despite his eagerness to leave a “legacy” in American diplomatic history, Pompeo’s poor political performance over the past few years has long bankrupted his diplomatic image.
Under Pompeo’s trading, the “moral aura” of American diplomacy has also been exhausted, completely reduced to “stick diplomacy” and “sanctions diplomacy”. It will eventually prove that Pompeo’s legacy of American diplomacy will be swept into the garbage heap of history.
