Chinese officials and state media lashed out at former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, denouncing him as a “lunatic” and the “worst” to ever hold his office because he called on the United States to extend diplomatic recognition to Taiwan while he was visiting the island.
Pompeo arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday for a long-planned visit, receiving a warm welcome from the Taiwanese government. On Thursday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen awarded Pompeo the Order of the Brilliant Star for his efforts to bring the U.S. and Taiwan closer.
At the award ceremony, Pompeo said it was “simple, right, and proper” for the U.S. to end restrictions on diplomatic exchanges with Taiwan. He said Taiwan’s allies should remain firmly committed to protecting the island’s democratic freedoms.
“If any of us were mistaken or complacent about the risk to that freedom, I think we need only watch what’s taking place in Europe today to see that this continues to demand deep, concerted, focus[ed] leadership from those of us who cherish freedom,” Pompeo said, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I think these days call for the simple reminder that it is not provocative to say that one demands freedom,” he said.
This might have been intended as a rebuke to China’s constant complaints that U.S. warship transits through the Strait of Taiwan are “provocative.” A U.S. Navy destroyer passed through the Strait on Saturday.
On Thursday night, Pompeo used Twitter to call for U.S. diplomatic recognition of Taiwan.
The United States switched its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China in 1979, recognizing Beijing as the sole legal government of China, while remaining committed to preserving Taiwan’s autonomy and giving it the means to defend itself. As a matter of longstanding policy, the U.S. “opposes unilateral changes to the status quo by either side, and encourages both sides to engage in constructive dialogue on the basis of dignity and respect.”
Pompeo said diplomatic recognition would not be a step toward changing the status quo, but rather a recognition of a truth that has persisted for decades.
“This isn’t about Taiwan’s future independence, it’s about recognizing an unmistakable already existent reality. That reality is, as many of your past and present leaders have made clear, there’s no need for Taiwan to declare independence because it’s already an independent country,” he argued.
“Its name is the Republic of China (Taiwan). The people and government of the United States should simply recognize this political, diplomatic and sovereignty reality. The Taiwanese people deserve the world’s respect for a free, democratic and sovereign country,” Pompeo wrote.
Pompeo’s visit to Taiwan did not go over well in Beijing. On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin dismissed Pompeo as “a former politician with bankrupt credibility” and said, “his lunatic remarks will lead nowhere.”
China’s state-run Global Times punched out a berserk editorial on Friday morning that began by taunting Taiwan over a recent string of power outages, then hectored the island’s governing DPP party for welcoming “the worst secretary of state in history” with “drums and gongs.”
“Tsai racked her brains, prepared a ceremony to award him a special honor and planned to livestream it on the internet. She has tried to create the momentum for the awarding ceremony on social media platforms, but an unexpected power blackout made her post overwhelmed by netizens’ anger, forcing her to cancel the live broadcast. Pompeo was also caught up in traffic confusion caused by the outage,” the Global Times chortled.
The bulk of the rambling editorial used Pompeo’s visit and the blackouts to argue that Taiwan’s government puts too much effort into building futile defenses against Chinese invasion, at the expense of the Taiwanese people:
Taiwan’s livelihood guarantee is like a tattered tent, through which the rain and wind drive at will. The fundamental reason is that the DPP authority doesn’t take this matter seriously. It is frantically draining the savings of the Taiwan residents accumulated over the past 30 to 40 years. The “defense budget” is twice the “economic expenditure” in the DPP authority’s budget of this year. The so-called international friendship the DPP authority is trying to win costs the island dearly. As a result, Taiwan residents could not get the daily necessities they need, but are forced to accept US pork containing ractopamine, Japan food linked to the Fukushima disaster and evaporated milk from Lithuania.
As the above passage demonstrates, the Chinese propaganda machine has been working furiously to create political tension in Taiwan by harping on the Tsai administration’s decision to allow American pork imports that contain ractopamine, an additive considered harmless by U.S. regulators but banned in much of Asia.
The Global Times hooted at Taiwanese residents who purportedly thought the blackouts were signs of a Chinese invasion beginning, touting the power outages as evidence Taiwan would never be able to fend off an actual strike by the People’s Liberation Army – and thus condemning the DPP and Pompeo as deranged for encouraging an impossible Taiwanese “secession” that could only end with the island in ruins.