-
Chinese state media over the weekend slammed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's comments in Mexico where he cautioned against China's investments.
-
"When China comes calling it's not always to the good of your citizens," Pompeo said in Mexico City on Thursday.
-
China Daily called the comments "ignorant and malicious."
Chinese state media over the weekend slammed United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo comments in Mexico, where he cautioned against vast China investments in the region, saying his remarks were "ignorant and malicious."
The secretary of state said he was not against legitimate Chinese investments, but "when China comes calling it's not always to the good of your citizens," Pompeo said Thursday in Mexico City , according to comments posted on the U.S. State Department's website.
"When they show up with a straight-up, legitimate investment that's transparent and according to the rule of law, that's called competition and it's something that the United States welcomes," said Pompeo. "But when they show up with deals that seem to be too good to be true it's often the case that they, in fact, are."
Pompeo, who was visiting Panama and Mexico , took issue with how Chinese "state-owned enterprises show up in a way that is clearly not transparent, clearly not market-driven, and is designed not to benefit the people of Panama but rather to benefit the Chinese Government."
"Those are the kind of things we think are both inappropriate and not good for the people of Panama or any other country where China is engaged in this kind of predatory economic activity," he said.
State-run China Daily newspaper called Pompeo's remarks "both ignorant and malicious."
"Such wild remarks are what we have come to expect from members of the Trump administration, being based on neither truth nor fact," the newspaper said in an editorial on Sunday.
Allegations of debt-trap diplomacy
Chinese investment in emerging areas such as Latin America have been burgeoning, with Beijing keen to promote its flagship program, the Belt and Road Initiative .
The project aims to connect Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa with vast logistics and transport networks. While Beijing has touted the project as a mutual economic development initiative, it's widely seen as an attempt by China to construct a massive, multi-national zone of economic and political influence that has Beijing at its core.
The project has been heavily criticized amid allegations of debt-trap diplomacy and neo-colonialism.