Pompeo's clown show spotlights US administration's mistakes: China Daily editorial

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's media exposure has continued to rise, along with the number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in the United States, and the number of people there who have died from it.

Unfortunately, the country's top diplomat has not been using his growing media presence to promote the much-needed cooperation to contain the virus in the US and beyond. Instead he has taken every opportunity to bad-mouth China and the World Health Organization.

There is no lack of China-bashers on the other side of the Pacific, but Pompeo seems intent on being their cheerleader.

Scientists from different countries say the virus is from the wild, but Pompeo insists it originated from a pathology laboratory in Wuhan. Without any evidence to back this up, he needs a fabrication to help the notion gain some traction — hence, an incentive, the insistence China is obliged to compensate for the damage caused by the pandemic.

And in a bid to show the US is also willing to give, and not just trying to take as is its wont, Pompeo has reiterated the pledge of his boss that the US will provide $100 million to help China and other countries affected by the pandemic. Yet so far there has been nothing coming China's way. Instead, it is China that has been extending what support it can to the US, being the main provider of surgical masks, ventilators and other essential medical and life necessities to the US, which — "oops" — Pompeo somehow forgets to mention.

With no sign the administration is getting the pandemic under control at home, to make China a scapegoat is the only straw it can clutch at to try and hide its ineptness, and so deflect the storm of public censure.

But in a difficult situation such as the one we all face now, Pompeo's clown show is simply self-harming for the US. It is solidarity that is desperately needed to fight this common enemy, not a stand-up comedy routine.

The current US administration should give serious thought to the potential losses and gains of its current approach.

The seemingly unstoppable rise in the number of infections and deaths in the US is simply exposing the folly of the administration's initial don't-panic-Wall-Street approach and the desperation of its subsequent blame-anyone-else practices.

It is the US people that are paying for these actions, and the more the administration looks to blame others, the heavier the cost will be, because it is only when all countries work together that the pandemic can be fully tamed.