'Master of lying': China mouthpiece trades barb with Pompeo over US-China war of visas

Reacting to United States Secretary of the State Mike Pompeo's response after China imposed visa restrictions on US officials, Hu Xijin, the editor of Chinese mouthpiece Global Times, who has emerged as a sort-of unofficial spokesperson of China, has slammed Pompeo calling him the 'master of lying'.

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Xijin's rationale was China imposed visa ban as a retaliation to the US who imposed restrictions on members of the Communist Chinese Party (CCP). The US had imposed restrictions on CCP officials as a mark of strong retaliation on China's aggressive policies on the semi-autonomous city Hong Kong.

The Global Times Editor has emphasised on the US measures against Chinese officials while clearly undermining or consciously ignoring the human rights violations suffered by Hong Kong citizens at the hands of the Chinese Communist Regime over a long period of time. The new national security law for Hong Kong pass by the Chinese regime has not only received strong criticisms by the US but also by other prominent countries such as the United Kingdon, Canada, Australia among others.

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The US measures against China

Besides imposing visa restrictions on Chinese Communist Party officials, US President Donald Trump in May-end had announced a slew of measures against China including suspending visas of thousands of Chinese graduate students enrolled at US universities and deporting them, imposing other sanctions against Chinese officials and cancelling the special trade exemptions given to Hong Kong.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, "President Trump promised to punish the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials who were responsible for eviscerating Hong Kong's freedoms. Today, we are taking action to do just that."

The decisions were taken by the US in view of China imposing the new security law in Hong Kong snatching the human rights and freedom of the citizens in Hong Kong, China's discreet way of handling the COVID-19 crisis and not alarming the world about the severity of the crisis and its alleged involvement in espionage and intellectual property theft by way of Chinese students enrolment in American universities.

Hong Kong turmoil

Hong Kong has been reeling under frequent protests since 2019 over the Chinese aggression jeopardising the autonomy of the city, its freedom and human rights, followed by the introduction and passage of the new security law which as touted by the world is sure to undermine the 'one country two systems' principle, eventually leading to the decimation of Hong Kong's autonomy stated under the Sino-British joint declaration of 1997.

This unilateral decision by the Chinese communist regime has deeply concerned the International community as the US, UK, Canada and Australia opposed the decision of China to impose the security law in Hong Kong.

In a joint statement, the four countries had said that direct imposition of national security legislation on Hong Kong by the Beijing authorities, rather than through Hong Kong's own institutions as provided for under Article 23 of the Basic Law, "would curtail the Hong Kong people's liberties, and in doing so, dramatically erode Hong Kong's autonomy and the system that made it so prosperous".