U.S. Secretary of State Mike “Armageddon” Pompeo, perhaps thinking he has not done enough to start a showdown with China, took another provocative step to stir the flames.
On Oct. 15, Pompeo appointed Robert Destro, who is serving as the State Department’s assistant secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor—and has a history of pushing “human rights” activity—to also serve concurrently as the U.S. Special Coordinator on Tibetan Issues, a post that exists as the result of a 2002 U.S. law, but which had not been filled.
Pompeo expects Destro to play a confrontational role. In July, Pompeo said that the U.S. would restrict visas for some Chinese officials blocking access to Tibet and engaging in “human rights abuses,” adding that Washington supported “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet. Pompeo wants the U.S. to broker relations between China and the feudalist Dalai Lama.
Sure enough, on Oct. 16, Destro met with the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Lobsang Sangay, who shared a photo of their meeting on Facebook, with the text: “Great honor to meet with the Special Coordinator on Tibetan Issues.”
Under Pompeo’s direction, the U.S. has already accused China of placing Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps; provided backing and cover for violent groups against the government of Hong Kong; spreading COVID-19 around the world; etc. Pompeo’s policy is to wreck all relations with China, in some version of a fight between good and evil, a showdown which advances not the interests of the United States, but those of the British Empire.
