Always turns up like bad pence: China Daily editorial

Should US Vice-President Mike Pence mistake the courteousness and hospitality of his hosts during his visit to Europe last week as an endorsement of what he said, he would be able to submit a perfect report to the US president.

But courtesy and hospitality are part of the diplomacy his hosts are duty-bound to follow. In reality, what he said has invited strong reactions, including sarcastic commentaries and reports, calling his trip "disastrous", "awkward" and "bumpy".

As an Irish saying goes, if you can't say anything good, say nothing at all. Yet Pence seemed happy to rub salt in Britons' wound by declaring the US president's unconditional support for a no-deal Brexit, and regaled in smearing China. If courtesy is part of diplomats' job description, committing faux pas and embarrassing his hosts have become integral to Pence's style of diplomacy.

That explains why his "absurd" views have fallen on deaf ears. If there is anything the United States vice-president has left behind in Europe, it is clumsiness and aggression, like a bull in a china shop.

His heavy security protection in Reykjavik almost paralyzed the capital of one of the safest countries. The embarrassment he caused his Irish hosts by his choosing to stay in a property owned by the US president 290 kilometers from Dublin prompted some to compare his behavior to deliberately soiling the "red carpet" laid out for him. Polish businesspeople are worried that the US administration will force them to choose between free trade and the US. And British people's protests against a no-deal Brexit that coincided with his visit show how far removed he and his president are from reality.

Those who have heard his anti-China speech on Oct 4 last year at the Hudson Institute, which many read as a frightening portent for the US declaring a new Cold War, would not be surprised by his efforts to demonize China when it comes to trade and investment.

Pence's fear-mongering rhetoric against China is no more than another futile attempt to drive a wedge between China and the European Union. Unless he and his fellow politicians provide facts, which they can never because no such facts exist, to justify their allegations against China, they would do good to follow the established international trade norms and let the global economy function properly for the benefit of all.