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(FILES) This file photo taken on May 14, 2019 shows the flags of the United States. USA (L) and China displayed outside a hotel in Beijing. (Photo by Greg Baker / AFP)
China on Friday urged the United States to meet it halfway and strengthen cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic after President Donald Trump threatened to cut bilateral relations.
Relations between the world’s two largest economies have deteriorated in recent weeks, with both sides exchanging comments on the origins of the virus that has killed more than 300,000 people.
“Maintaining the constant development of relations between China and the United States is in the fundamental interests of people in both countries, and is conducive to world peace and stability,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a press conference.
“Today, China and the United States must continue to strengthen cooperation against the epidemic, defeat it as soon as possible, treat patients, and restore the economy and production. But it requires the United States to meet halfway with China. “
The comments came after Trump further tightened his rhetoric towards China, threatening to cut ties with the rival superpower entirely, as relations have steadily deteriorated due to the pandemic.
“There are a lot of things we could do … We could cut the whole relationship,” Trump said Thursday in an interview with Fox Business News.
“I would save $ 500 billion if I cut the entire relationship.”
Trump said his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping is “very good,” but added, “I don’t want to speak to him right now.”
The threat came a week after a trade call between American and Chinese trade negotiators in which both sides emphasized their commitment to the Phase One trade deal reached in January.
However, compliance with the agreement appears increasingly subdued in the face of the pandemic and the looming global economic recession.
In the pact signed in January, China agreed to buy $ 200 billion more in American goods for two years than in 2017, before the trade war broke out and triggered tariffs on billions of dollars in two-way trade.
Tensions increased between Washington and Beijing, as they exchanged comments on the origin of the pandemic that first appeared in late 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, which Trump has called the “plague of China.”
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