US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a stern warning to China and Russia on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, saying it was unwise to view Russia as a reliable partner in the Middle East.
Pompeo accused both Beijing and Moscow of using a policy of repression against dissidents and said Russia, "ruled by a former KGB officer," was sweeping its neighbors and slaughtering political opponents.
He also said that Russia is suppressing the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, and continued: While I am talking now the Russian authorities are torturing Ukrainians and Crimeans opposed to Russian violence. In Chechnya, every person deemed undesirable by the authorities disappears.
In a speech during his visit to Germany to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Pompeo also said the Communist Party of China (CPC) is an authoritarian regime that the world has never seen before and is eerily similar to the one in East Germany.
"Free Western countries have a responsibility to ward off threats to our people from governments like China, Russia and Iran," he said. He was speaking a few meters away from the site where the wall was located near the famous Brandenburg Gate in the German capital.
War of words
Last month, Pompeo stepped up a war of words against the Communist Party of China (CPC), saying Beijing was focusing on international hegemony and should be confronted. China called it a "vicious attack."
Pompeo constantly irritates China, whether in the form of statements about the Belt and Road Project, allegations of human rights violations in the far western region of Xinjiang, and many other topics.
At a daily news conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman King Shuang said Pompeo's attack on the political system, which Beijing described as a threat, was "highly charged with ideological prejudice", which China strongly opposes.
Pompeo is on a four-day visit to Germany, during which he went to his military service during the Cold War, at the border iron curtain. He is expected to meet officials including Merkel.
While in Europe, the US official sought to strengthen transatlantic relations that were affected by trade disputes, disagreements over geopolitical crises and military spending.