US, Australia, India, Japan discuss China's growing power

[sl8]

https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-international-news-australia-india-yoshihide-suga-ce3598476a8c459105a293d653f7e677

US, Australia, India, Japan discuss China’s growing power

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
26 minutes ago

TOKYO (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that China’s increasingly assertive actions across the region make it more critical than ever for four Indo-Pacific nations known as the Quad to cooperate to protect their partners and their people from Chinese “exploitation, corruption and coercion.”

Pompeo made the remark at a meeting in Tokyo with the foreign ministers of Japan, India and Australia, who together make up the Quad. The talks were the group’s first in-person meeting since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Pompeo accused China of covering up the pandemic and worsening it, while threatening freedom, democracy and diversity in the region with its increasingly assertive actions.

“It is more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partners from the Chinese Communist Party’s exploitation, corruption and coercion,” Pompeo said. “We see in the East and South China Seas. The Mekong, the Himalayas, the Taiwan Strait. These are just a few examples.”

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[Newest Reality]

1. Pompeo is a rhetorical hypocrite?

We have our own, blatant exploitation, corruption and coercion right here at home, thank you and thanks to this Administration. Yes Sir, there is nothing like a neo-Fascist government criticizing the communists. Nothing new there.

Now, lemme see. Who is a real threat to freedom, democracy and diversity? Gee. Uh? Oh my!

It sounds like another deflection as the pot calls the kettle black.