Trump's anti-China farce exposed; Pompeo meets Chinese officials amid explosive revelation

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was meeting with a top Chinese official in Hawaii as new revelations about President Donald Trump and China rocked Washington. Pompeo and his deputy Stephen Biegun were holding closed-door talks with Chinese Communist Party's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, at Hickam Air Force Base in Holulu on Wednesday, according to a senior State Department official on base.

reporters were allowed to travel with Pompeo and Biegun, and cover of event is expected to be extremely limited. discussions, which are expected to cover a wide range of contentious issues that have sent relations between two countries plummeting, got underway shortly after explosive details from a new book by Trump's former national security viser John Bolton began to emerge in news reports.

In book, Bolton alleges that Trump sought China's help in winning reelection in 2020 by ending a tre war and encourd Chinese President Xi Jinping to build concentration camps for Uighur Muslims in western China, according to an excerpt published in Wall Street Journal. On Wednesday, Trump signed a bill that seeks to punish China for its crackdown on Uighurs and or ethnic mirities.

legislation, which Congress passed with little opposition, includes sanctions on Chinese officials involved in mass surveillance and detention. Tre and human rights along with China's policies toward Hong Kong and its response to coronavirus pandemic are among most divisive matters expected to be on Pompeo and Biegun's nda with Yang. In his book, Bolton writes that Trump appealed for Xi's help in getting a second term at a G-20 leers dinner in Osaka, Japan, according to excerpt published by Journal.

Trump n, stunningly, turned conversation to coming US presidential election, alluding to China's ecomic capability and pleing with Xi to ensure he'd win. He stressed importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in electoral outcome," Bolton wrote. New York Times, meanwhile, reported that Bolton wrote that Pompeo, who led Trump's early outreach to rth Korean leer Kim Jong Un before handing reins to Biegun, was highly skeptical of effort and never believed a deal was possible.

Biegun's presence at Hawaii meeting suggested that delocked US-rth Korea talks would also be a topic of conversation. State Department h comment on any aspect of Bolton's book and referred questions to White House. Despite Bolton's portrayal of Trump being enthralled with Xi, China has become a key element in 2020 presidential campaign with Trump and his supporters seeking to make ministration's tough stance with Beijing a main foreign policy selling point. y have also painted Democratic candidate Joe Biden as being soft on China.

Last month, Trump and Pompeo anunced that US would be rescinding special tre and ecomic privileges it h extended to Hong Kong after former British territory reverted to Chinese control in 1997. move was in response to Beijing's decision to impose strict new national security laws limiting right to free speech and assembly similar to those on mainland. And, since last year, both sides have ramped up hostile rhetoric against or and taken reciprocal steps to expel journalists and restrict diplomats' ability to travel.