US President Donald Trump on Saturday, 18 April warned China that it should be ready to face consequences if it was ‘knowingly responsible’ for the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Trump, who has expressed disappointment over China's handling of the coronavirus disease, alleged non-transparency and initial non-cooperation from Beijing with Washington on dealing with the crisis while accusing them of hiding real figures.
“If they were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences. You’re talking about, you know, potentially lives like nobody’s seen since 1917.”Donald Trump
Trump said his relationship with China was very good till the time the deadly COVID-19 swept across the world.
The president underlined that there was a big difference between a mistake that got out of control and something done deliberately.
"In either event, they should have let us go in. You know, we asked to go in very early and they didn't want us in. I think they knew it was something bad and I think they were embarrassed," Trump said.
‘News Outlets Should Name Sources’
President Trump also said that the media outlets should be mandated to name their sources in their stories, as he slammed the top mainstream American media for their alleged dishonest reporting.
During the news conference, Trump launched an unprecedented individual criticism of Maggie Haberman, White House correspondent for 'The New York Times' and a political analyst for CNN, for allegedly writing inaccurate source-based stories.
According to Trump, sources say is the most often used expression in the 'Washington Post', 'New York Times', and especially the CNN.
‘China Pitching For Biden’
Trump claimed that China was pitching for former vice president Joe Biden, who is the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for the presidential election.
"If sleepy Joe Biden wins, China will own the United States," Trump said, adding that his administration had gained billions of dollars from China due to his assertive trade policies.
The president said the coronavirus crisis had hurt everybody.
"We had the greatest economy in the world by far. China isn't even close. Go back two months. And we're going to keep it that way," he said.
Trump also asserted that Iran was now a much different country than it was before.
"When I first came in, Iran was going to take over the entire Middle East," he said. "Right now, they just want to survive."
The United States has slammed China for the "delay" in sharing information with its technical experts on the deadly coronavirus.
Trump Doubtful of China’s Official Figures
Expressing his doubts over the official Chinese figures on the number of deaths in their country due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Trump said, “We are not number one; China is number one just so you understand. They are way ahead of us in terms of death. It's not even close."
Trump’s comments come two days after another 1,300 fatalities were added to the official count in the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak started. The revision puts China’s overall death toll to more than 4,600.
Beijing Denies Cover-Up
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Friday, 17 April denied any cover-up and accused the US of attempting to divert public attention.
"There has never been any concealment, and we'll never allow any concealment," Zhao Lijian told a media briefing.
According to data maintained by Johns Hopkins University, over 35,000 people have died in the US and the country has 734,969 infections, the highest in the world. The death toll in China is 4,632 with no fatalities reported on Saturday, according to China’s National Health Commission.
Globally, 160,721 people have died and over 2.3 million people have been infected by the coronavirus, according to data maintained by Johns Hopkins University.
(With inputs from PTI)
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