Washington: President Donald Trump said he thinks that China is determined to see him lose the November election based on Beijing’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Trump, in an Oval Office interview with Reuters published Wednesday night, did not provide evidence to bolster his assertion, but said that he was considering various ways to punish the Chinese government, which he has blamed for allowing the virus to spread across the world.
“China will do anything they can to have me lose this race,” Trump said in the interview. He did not say what punitive actions he might take, but added “There are many things I can do.”
Officials in Washington and Beijing have been firing charges at each other over the pandemic for weeks.
Earlier Wednesday, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said that China posed a threat to the world by hiding information about the origin of the coronavirus.
“The Chinese Communist Party now has a responsibility to tell the world how this pandemic got out of China and all across the world, causing such global economic devastation,” Pompeo told Fox News on Wednesday morning, during an interview in which he repeatedly criticized China’s government. “America needs to hold them accountable.”
The comments came after China Central Television’s top evening news program on Wednesday questioned the transparency and accuracy of U.S. data on Covid-19 infections.- Bloomberg
Also read: Pompeo says China responsible for Covid-19 outbreak, must detail origin of virus