United States President Donald Trump on Monday, 6 July once again targeted China on Twitter, claiming that it had caused “great damage to the United States and the rest of the World!”
No explanation or context was provided for the statement by Trump, whose use of social media has come in for renewed scrutiny in recent weeks, following the retweeting of a video in which one of his voters shouts “White Power”, and Twitter’s context warnings over tweets for threatening language.
In an earlier tweet, Trump had once again called the novel coronavirus the “China Virus”, while talking about increasing cases.
Trump’s attacks on China have continued amid a trade war over tariffs and his accusations that the Chinese government tried to hide the truth about the virus outbreak, with the World Health Organisation’s connivance.
As the Indo-China tensions continue to simmer over the situation at the LAC in Ladakh, including the clash at the Galwan Valley on 15 June in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed by the PLA, Trumpon Saturday, 4 July, tweeted that “America loves India!”.
The tweet came in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message wishing Trump and the US citizens on USA’s 244th Independence Day, which also noted that India and the US are the world’s largest democracies.
Trump had previously offered to mediate between India and China over the recent tensions – an offer that was rejected by the Indian government.
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