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Opinion | What the US really wanted from its summit with China in Hawaii
- Pompeo and Yang stuck to their countries’ positions on the key strategic issues at last week’s meeting, initiated by the US and described as constructive
- Whatever was said at the meeting, there would have been just one objective for Pompeo’s overture – to improve Trump’s chances of re-election
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It is notable that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has been criticising China’s efforts to fight the coronavirus from the moment they began and even blamed Beijing for America’s failures to contain its own epidemic, initiated the recent US-China summit and suggested that it be held on the historically significant island of Honolulu in Hawaii.
Honolulu is located in the midpoint of the Pacific Ocean, which Chinese President Xi Jinping once said was big enough to accommodate both China and the US. The island, quite a distance from the US mainland and about a six-hour flight from Los Angeles, also has historical ties with China.
It had a thriving sandalwood trade with China dating back to the 1700s, selling the Chinese the prized wood and buying in return tea, pottery and silks. The Chinese call Honolulu the Sandalwood Mountains.
Of course, for all of Pompeo’s views on China and the Communist Party, he takes his orders from the US president.
Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election in November, is facing multiple challenges: Covid-19 failures, political dysfunction and the George Floyd protests.
He also faces increasing criticism from his own Republican Party, has fallen behind his Democratic opponent Joe Biden in the opinion polls and been blindsided by the accusations in former national security adviser John Bolton’s recent tell-all book. At this critical moment, his decision to send Pompeo to Hawaii can only have been for one objective: to improve his chances of re-election.
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