https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-...its-out-at-china-threats-20200521-p54uzz.html 'We stand with Australia': Mike Pompeo hits out at China threats Matthew Knott May 21, 2020 — 7.43am Washington: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blasted the Chinese Communist Party for threatening economic retaliation against Australia, declaring the Trump administration fully backs the Morrison government's push for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. A motion led by the European Union and Australia to establish an independent review of the coronavirus passed the World Health Assembly by a unanimous vote this week, a day after China hit Australian barley producers with tariffs of up to 80 per cent. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he is 'looking forward' to seeing China 'fulfil' their pledge of $US2 billion over the next two years to help deal with COVID-19, especially in developing countries. "The Chinese Communist Party chose to threaten Australia with economic retribution for the simple act of asking for an independent inquiry into the origins of the virus," Pompeo said at a media briefing in Washington on Wednesday (Thursday AEST). "It’s not right." Pompeo said: "We stand with Australia and the more than 120 nations now who have taken up the American call for an inquiry into the origins of the virus, so we can understand what went wrong and save lives now, and in the future." Pompeo, who is one of the Trump administration's leading China hawks, said China "been ruled by a brutal, authoritarian regime" since 1949. "We greatly underestimated the degree to which Beijing is ideologically and politically hostile to free nations," he said. "The whole world is waking up to that fact." Relations between the US and China are already playing an important role in this year's presidential election, with President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden accusing each other of being soft on Beijing. Polls show 66 per cent of Americans now hold negative views of China - the highest on record. Referring to the loss of lives and economic damage caused by the pandemic, Pompeo said: "China’s contributions to fighting the pandemic are paltry compared to the cost that they have imposed on the world". "Beijing continues to deny investigators access to relevant facilities, to withhold live virus samples, to censor discussion of the pandemic within China, and much, much more," he said. Pompeo defended his role in the Trump administration's controversial decision to sack the State Department’s inspector general, who was investigating Pompeo over the potential misuse of government resources. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took aim at China for threatening economic retaliation against Australia. Credit:AP Trump this week threatened to permanently cancel funding to the World Health Organisation, accusing the organisation and its director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of being soft on China. In his latest remarks to the media Pompeo said that "Dr Tedros’s unusually close ties to Beijing started long before this current pandemic, and that’s deeply troubling". Earlier in the day Trump took aim at Beijing on Twitter, saying: "Some wacko in China just released a statement blaming everybody other than China for the Virus which has now killed hundreds of thousands of people. “Please explain to this dope that it was the ‘incompetence of China’, and nothing else, that did this mass Worldwide killing!" It was unclear exactly what statement Trump was referring to in his tweet.