First, let's talk about Trump. Does Trump hate China? I'd say no, not at all. Okay, maybe a little due to the fact that COVID-19 ruined his re-election chances. Trump can be vindictive like that. Apart from that, everything Trump did during his term was to ensure his re-election.
Bannon and Navarro are just pawns of a higher power. They were picked by Trump because they aligned with Trump's support base, which was the rabidly anti-establishment conservatives. Now remember my analogy about Dukes and Barons? Well, there's also an Archbishop in there, and that is of course the religious fundamentalists. The evangelical church resemble, in many ways, a corporation. Some would say they are a pyramid scheme. In any case, they share much of the same motivations as corporations. Their business is converting people to their beliefs, because converts are their source of income. Now add to that the fact that the evangelical church has had a hand in China's pocket since the days of the Opium War. Put yourself in their shoes. Their "golden age" in China was when China was weak, divided, and hooked up on opium. When the Communists came into power, they were summarily booted out, and only came back in the last 30 years with the market reforms, and they basically had to restart everything from scratch. It should be pretty obvious where their interests lie.
Finally, Pompeo is your typical sociopathic opportunist. Normal human beings do not like to lie, that's why most of us are really bad at it. It's an evolutionary trait that allows people to trust each other and work together. However, there are some individuals who simply lack this trait. They can lie without the slightest tinge of guilt, and have a completely lack of empathy. To these individuals, people are tools, to be used and discarded without an afterthought. If, hypothetically, Pompeo had seen some way of benefiting from improving US-China relations, he'd be singing Xi Jinping's praise all day long. Pompeo, of course, was trying to ride on Trump's coattails and make a name for himself in preparation for 2024. That said, it should also be quite obvious that as a former CIA director, Pompeo is firmly in the pocket of the MIC.
