U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is seemingly trying to downplay today’s China-Africa summit with yet another warning to African leaders about Beijing’s supposed ill intentions on the continent. In a tweet with an accompanying video published on the State Department’s French-language Twitter account, Pompeo was unreserved in his contempt for the Chinese:

“I want to mention briefly an upcoming meeting between General Secretary Xi and leaders in Africa on COVID-19. We’ve taken note of the very modest financial donations that China and so-called private Chinese entities have disbursed in Africa. 

“China’s contributions to fighting the pandemic are paltry compared to the financial and human cost of the coverup that it engendered. And I note too that China will exploit the pandemic as a pretext to continue its opaque lending practices that have led nations to debt and disappointment all throughout Africa.”