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U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday toughened his rhetoric against China, saying he will not speak to his counterpart Xi Jinping and threatening to cut bilateral ties due to the way Beijing handled the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tension between the world’s largest powers skyrocketed at the expense of the coronavirus pandemic, which Trump has called a “Chinese plague.”
“I have a very good relationship (with Xi), but it’s just that right now I don’t want to talk to him,” Trump told Fox Business, saying he is “very disappointed” by the Chinese handling of the pandemic.
Asked if the United States could retaliate, Trump did not elaborate but warned in a threatening tone: “There are many things we could do. We could do things. We could cut all relationships.”
“If we did, what could happen?” Trump said. “We would save $ 500 billion if we cut the entire relationship.”
Tension between the United States and China has escalated in recent weeks due to exchanges of accusations about the origin of the new coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of 300,000 people.
Trump has said that Beijing covered up the real magnitude of the outbreak, which originated in late 2019 in the city of Wuhan, in central China, which allowed its spread.
The government of the Asian giant denies that accusation, and insists that it transmitted all the available information to the World Health Organization as soon as it could.
Trump insisted on his allegations during the Fox interview. “It all came from China and they should have stopped it,” he said.
“It is very sad what happened in the world and in our country with all those deaths,” he added.
Hacking allegations
The fight between the United States and China over the pandemic raises questions about the partial trade agreement reached in January that established a truce in its tariff war.
Earlier in the week, Trump ruled out renegotiating the deal after press reports indicated China wanted to reopen the deals.
On Friday, China’s top negotiator Liu He spoke on the phone with his American counterparts, then said that both sides agreed to implement the first phase of the deal.
But the war of words is simmered. US officials stoke the fire by saying Chinese hackers are trying to gain data on coronavirus treatments and vaccines. They also warned that this attempt involves groups and people related to the Chinese government.
The FBI and the federal cybersecurity agency said China’s efforts pose a “significant threat” to the United States’ response to COVID-19 when dozens of companies, institutes and governments around the world are rushing to develop a vaccine.
Beijing rejects the allegations and considers that they seek to litter the game at a time when it denied the American accusation that the coronavirus arose in a laboratory in Wuhan.
Asked by Fox Business about the reasons for that accusation, Trump was less categorical than other times and even seemed to tone it down.
“We have a lot of information and it is not good. But, you know, the worst thing of all, whether it came from a laboratory or from a bat, is that it came from China and they must stop it,” he said.
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