US, China clash over pandemic at UNGA
In pre-recorded speeches, President Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi duel over Covid-19, trade and environment
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday asked the United Nations to hold Beijing “accountable” for Covid-19, describing it as “China virus”, and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping urged nations to reject any bid to politicise the crisis, while saying Beijing does not want a “cold or hot war”.
“The United Nations must hold China accountable for their actions,” Trump said in a pre-recorded speech to the UN General Assembly, as the world body is marking 75 years of its founding.
The US president accused China of unleashing “this plague” on the world and then concealing early evidence that the deadly pathogen can be transmitted human-to-human and by asymptomatic people.
“In the earliest days of the virus, China locked down travel domestically while allowing flights to leave China and infect the world,” Trump said. “China condemned my travel ban on their country, even as they cancelled domestic flights and locked citizens in their homes.”
Trump’s attack on China at the UN followed a narrative that he has often used domestically to fend off criticism of his own handling of the worst public health crisis the country has faced in 100 years, with the tally of coronavirus infections crossing 200,000 on Tuesday.
The pandemic, which has killed 965,000 people and infected more than 31.3 million worldwide, has overshadowed the UN meetings this year.
World leaders are participating virtually, through pre-recorded speeches, with introductions from their respective representatives.
In an unmistakable reference to the US-China trade war, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier talked about the need to prevent a “new Cold War”.
Nevertheless, Washington and Beijing brought their battle to the General Assembly undeterred. After slamming China over the Covid-19 pandemic, the US president attacked China over environment and trade.
“Every year, China dumps millions and millions of tonnes of plastic and trash into the oceans, overfishes other countries’ waters, destroys vast swaths of coral reef, and emits more toxic mercury into the atmosphere than any country anywhere in the world,” he said. “China’s carbon emissions are nearly twice what the US has, and it’s rising fast.”
President Trump went on to accuse China of “trade abuses” and claimed credit for standing up to it, triggering a trade war that soon engulfed the whole world.
While he won some minor concessions from China in an interim deal, the larger issues that he had cited as his reasons remain unresolved.
The American leader told the United Nations that if it intended to be effective, it “must focus on the real problems of the world”: terrorism, the oppression of women, forced labour, drug trafficking, human and sex trafficking, religious persecution, and the ethnic cleansing of religious minorities.
Chinese ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun hit back at the US president, telling reporters that when the international community is really fighting hard against the Covid-19, the US “is spreading a political virus here in the General Assembly”.
In a pre-recorded speech of his own, Xi directly rebuked Trump’s speech, saying China had “no intention to fight either a cold war or a hot one with any country”.
“Facing the virus, we should enhance solidarity and get through this together. We should follow the guidance of science, give full play to the leading role of the World Health Organization (WHO),” Xi said, adding, “Any attempt of politicising the issue or stigmatisation must be rejected.”
The Chinese president called for the world to combat the health crisis unitedly. “We will continue to narrow differences and resolve disputes with others through dialogue and negotiation. We will not seek to develop only ourselves or engage in zero sum game,” Xi said.
Xi went on to propose four measures for the world to combat the crisis: put people and life first, enhance solidarity, adopt comprehensive and long-term control measures, and show concern for and accommodate the need of developing countries, especially African nations, according Xinhua news agency.