Trump’s China claim

US leader says Beijing wants him to lose upcoming election

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump says China’s handling of the coronavirus is proof that Beijing “will do anything they can” to make him lose his reelection bid in November.

In an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office, Mr 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.

Mr Trump has been heaping blame on China for the global pandemic that has killed at least 60,000 people in the US, 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 US 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, Mr Trump would not offer specifics. “There are many things I can do,” he said. “We’re looking for what happened.”

He said he believes Beijing wants his Democratic op ponent, Joe Biden, to win the race to ease the pressure Mr Trump has placed on China over trade and other issues.

“China will do anything they can to have me lose this race,” Mr Trump said.

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 econ omic fallout from the virus. A senior Trump administration official said on Wednesday that an informal “truce” in the war of words that Mr Trump and Mr 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 co-operate to contain the coronavirus.