US President Trump says China ready to do anything to make him lose Presidential race
In an interview, Trump talked tough on China and said he was looking at different options in terms of consequences for Beijing over the virus. "I can do a lot," he said.
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FollowWashington DC: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he believes China's handling of the coronavirus is proof that Beijing "will do anything they can" to make him lose his re-election bid in November.
During an interview in the Oval Office, Trump talked tough on China and said he was looking at different options in terms of consequences for Beijing over the virus. "I can do a lot," he said.
Trump has been heaping blame on China for a global pandemic that has killed at least 60,000 people in the United States according to a Reuters tally, and thrown the US economy into a deep recession, putting in jeopardy his hopes for another four-year term.
The Republican President, often accused of not acting early enough to prepare the United States for the spread of the virus, said he believed China should have been more active in letting the world know about the coronavirus much sooner.
Asked whether he was considering the use of tariffs or even debt write-offs for China, Trump would not offer specifics. "There are many things I can do," he said. "We're looking for what happened."
"China will do anything they can to have me lose this race," said Trump. He said he believes Beijing wants his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, to win the race to ease the pressure Trump has placed on China over trade and other issues.
Also read: 184 countries going through hell as China failed to stop coronavirus at source: Trump
"They're constantly using public relations to try to make it like they're innocent parties," he said of Chinese officials.
He said the trade deal that he concluded with Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at reducing chronic US trade deficits with China had been "upset very badly" by the economic fallout from the virus.
A senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday that an informal “truce” in the war of words that Trump and Xi essentially agreed to in a phone call in late March now appeared to be over.
The two leaders had promised that their governments would do everything possible to cooperate to contain the coronavirus. In recent days, Washington and Beijing have traded increasingly bitter recriminations over the origin of the virus and the response to it.
However, Trump and his top aides, while stepping up their anti-China rhetoric, have stopped short of directly criticizing Xi, who the US president has repeatedly called his “friend.”
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