Only President Donald Trump can tackle China and its 'predatory aggression': Mike Pompeo

Washington: President Donald Trump is the only person who can take on China and its "predatory aggression," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told the American people. He also said that President Trump will not rest until he brings the Communist nation to justice for spreading death and economic destruction in America and around the world through the coronavirus.

Pompeo on Tuesday deviated from his own advice and broke the longstanding precedent of sitting US secretaries of state avoiding partisan politics to urge Americans to re-elect President Trump on November 3 if they want to keep the country safe.

In his address to the Republican National Convention from Jerusalem, Pompeo, who is leading the Trump administration's vocal attack on China and its aggressive moves in recent times against India and in the strategic Indo-Pacific region, said that President Trump has taken bold initiatives in nearly every corner of the world.

"In China, he has pulled back the curtain on the predatory aggression of the Chinese Communist Party. The president has held China accountable for covering up the China virus and allowing it to spread death and economic destruction in America and around the world. And he will not rest until justice is done," the top American diplomat said.

He said President Trump has ensured that the ruling Chinese Communist Party spies posing as diplomats in America are jailed or sent back to China. Further, Trump has ended the "ridiculously unfair" trade arrangement with China that punched a hole in America's economy, he said.

"Those jobs are coming back home," Pompeo said. He earlier tweeted from his personal Twitter handle.

"President Trump has ensured the safety of America and SECURED our many FREEDOMS, which is the cornerstone of this great nation," he wrote and said he would share with the American people on how the President has delivered on that mission.

Relations between the US and China have plummeted during Trump's time in office, with a trade war, tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats, and angry denunciations coming from both Washington and Beijing.

Trump has repeatedly accused China of spreading the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated the US, killing more than 170,000 Americans and causing widespread economic misery that could tank Trump's re-election chances. The coronavirus emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan before it spread across the world.

Pompeo has been attacking China after the People's Liberation Army has been making aggressive moves along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh as well as in the South China Sea.

On July 8, he said India has done its best to respond to China's ?incredibly aggressive actions. He said that Beijing has a pattern of "instigating" territorial disputes and the world shouldn't allow this bullying to take place.

Pompeo has also said that the world will not allow China to treat the strategically important South China Sea as its "maritime empire" and has vowed that the US would support worried Southeast Asian countries against Beijing's "campaign of bullying" to control the resource-rich region.

Beijing claims almost all of the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory. China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Pompeo has also said that the "Chinese predatory world view" has no place in the 21st century and Washington stood with its Southeast Asian allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources, consistent with their rights and obligations under international law.