Shen Xianzhi 568235227@qq.com THERE is enormous evidence of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s persistent lying, fabrication and defamation, which evokes the era of McCarthyism. McCarthyism, according to Britannica, is a byname for defamation of character or reputation by means of widely publicized indiscriminate allegations, especially on the basis of unsubstantiated charges. In 1950, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy declared in a speech that he had “here in my hand” a list of a large number of communists working in the State Department, lifting the curtain on McCarthyism. During that era McCarthy made a series of indiscriminate accusations against and investigations into various government departments about suspected Communist infiltration and affiliations. What Pompeo has said in recent months against China is reminiscent of that old era, as is evidenced by at least the following three aspects. First, Pompeo’s persistent reference to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan virus.” On Feb. 11 the WHO announced that the new coronavirus would be known as COVID-19. “Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference in Geneva. “It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus outbreak.” But to Pompeo what matters is whether the name serves his needs. So he not only insisted on using the stigmatizing word, but tried to write the term into an official joint statement following the G7 ministers’ meeting, which was rejected by other foreign ministers, saying Pompeo’s proposal touched the red line. In contrast, on April 7 Nature magazine published an editorial titled “Stop the coronavirus stigma now,” apologizing for previous news reports that linked the coronavirus to Wuhan. Second, Pompeo’s repeated accusation of China’s cover-up and disinformation campaign in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. “We strongly believe that the Chinese Communist Party did not report the outbreak of the new coronavirus in a timely fashion to the World Health Organization,” Pompeo said April 22. And the truth is: China reported the outbreak to the WHO on Dec. 31 and shared the virus’ genome sequence Jan. 12. According to Reuters, on Jan. 3 Gao Fu, director of China’s CDC, called his U.S. counterpart Robert Redfield to discuss the outbreak. On Jan. 23, Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, underwent a lockdown, as a nationwide battle against the new virus started. While China has bought the U.S. Government time to study the disease and avoid being dragged into a similar position, that time was squandered, which has resulted in economic, social and political quagmires. Pompeo would not stop there. On May 3 he further attacked China for its mounting efforts to hide the extent of the virus spread, while stockpiling medical supplies. China Daily chose the ancient word “abracadabra” to refer to this kind of “l(fā)et-it-be-as-I-say” allegation. Third, trying to sell his theory on the virus’s origin, alleging the virus was leaked out of a Wuhan lab. On May 3, Pompeo alleged that there is “enormous evidence” to support the theory that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab. But to his dismay scientists around the world have shown that the virus originates from nature. In a paper published in Nature Medicine on March 17, leading infectious disease experts at the Scripps Research Translational Institute said it was “improbable” that the COVID-19 had emerged from a lab, citing comparative analysis of genomic data. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a renowned U.S. infectious disease expert, said in an interview with National Geographic that there is no scientific evidence to back the theory the coronavirus was made in a Chinese laboratory. Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO Health Emergencies Program, said at a WHO press briefing in Geneva that “we are assured that this virus is natural in origin, and we haven’t received any data or specific evidence from the U.S. Government related to the reported origin of the virus.” On May 9, China published a lengthy article striking back at 24 preposterous allegations and lies in the most sweeping and detailed rebuke of accusations over its handling of the COVID-19 outbreak. The article gave a point-to-point rebuttal of the lies that were fabricated by U.S. politicians to “shift the blame to China for their inadequate response to COVID-19.” The dirty blame game should be over, as the evidence has rolled out a clear picture that Pompeo and his like are the present-day McCarthy, who has left a legacy to play on ideas of secrecy, espionage, geopolitical confrontation and threat by using lies and defamation to scare Americans into submission. McCarthy knew no bounds to his lying, and eventually the U.S. Army’s lawyer Joseph Welch exposed his lies in immortal words. “Until this moment, Senator… You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?” Have you no sense of decency, Mr. Pompeo? (The author is the executive deputy editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily.) | 