Us-china ties in nosedive as Trump faces Covid flak
nWASHINGTON: The United States recorded its first Covid-19 case on January 21.
“China has been working very hard to contain the coronavirus,” President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter three days later, taking an indulgent view of Beijing’s alleged culpability. “The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American people, I want to thank President Xi.”
Six months later, on Thursday, Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, was declared a tyrant by Trump’s top diplomat Mike Pompeo.
There have been more than four million Covid-19 cases in the United States, and over 144,000 fatalities. SARS-COV-2, the virus which causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), may be the “China virus” or the “Wuhan virus”, as Trump and his aides have sought to portray it to shift blame, but it is an American problem, more than anything else.
And one that could rob President Trump of a second term.
Polls have been brutal on Trump’s handling of the epidemic. Joe Biden, the former vice-president and the presumptive Democratic nominee, leads the President by nearly nine points in the Realclearpolitics average of polls.
His frustration with China has grown exponentially at the same time. He has attacked Beijing for letting the virus escape its borders.
“So it’s a shame that it happened. China should have stopped it,” he said Thursday, re-litigating his case against China.
Trump ran his 2016 campaign for the White House on the promise of ending China’s rogue behaviour on trade, including currency manipulation.
He pursued a trade deal even though it had become clear that China was not interested in conceding the main American asks, such as ending forced transfer of technology. He won a limited Phase 1 deal, but never got to the larger agreement.
It is no longer a priority. “The trade deal means less to me now than it did when I made it,” Trump told reporters Thursday.
Trade ceded centre stage to Covid-19 as the main China issue when infections and fatalities began shooting around March. New York city and state soon replaced China’s Wuhan and Hubei province as the new epicentres of the raging pandemic.
Soon Us-china relations were in a precipitous downward spiral. This led to slew of sanctions, visa restrictions; and harsh remarks over the mistreatment of Uighur Muslims, restrictions in Hong Kong, and aggressive military postures in global hot spots.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, alleging it was being used as an intelligence-gathering hub.
On Friday, China notified the US that it’s revoking the operating permit for the US consulate in Chengdu.
On Thursday, secretary of state Pompeo , when asked if he was urging nations to pick between the US and China, Pompeo said the choice for them was between “freedom and tyranny”.