Trump says ‘Chinese Virus is accurate term’ as America, China trade barbs
WASHINGTON: Badly strained ties between the United States and China are deteriorating further with the two sides hurling harsh accusations and bitter namecalling over responsibility for the spread of the novel coronavirus.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended calling the pathogen the “Chinese virus” and said he is pushing back against the false narrative of China that the US military did this.
“Well, China was putting out information which was false that our military did this to them. That was false. And rather than having an argument, I said I had to call it where it came from. It did come from China,” he told reporters at a White House news conference.
“So I think it’s a very accurate term. I didn’t appreciate the fact that China was saying that our military gave it to them. Our military did not give it to anybody,” Trump said. An hour later, he started his meeting with CEOS of the hotel and tourism industry by using the term “China Virus”. Trump refuted the notion that his using of the phrase created a stigma against the Chinese. “I don’t think so. I think saying that our military did to them creates a stigma,” he asserted.
During the news conference, Trump said he took the right decision by imposing a travel ban on China.
He replied in the negative when asked about disruption in the supply chain, given that many precursors for pharmaceuticals come from China.
“No, I don’t see that at all and I think China has every incentive to make sure that things work well. China wants to make sure that things work very well,” Trump said.
The US President said he did not expect China not honouring its trade deal commitment of buying things from the US as a result of the coronavirus. “Well they need our product very badly... We have a good relationship with China. We have a signed agreement. They’re going to be buying and they have been buying a lot of product,” he said.
Right now, he said, China has been sending the US everything it needs. “But we are looking at some alternatives,” he added.
The US a nd Chi na have sparred over the origin of the virus for days, with a Chinese official promoting conspiracy theories claiming it was brought to China by the US army and Beijing accusing American officials of stigmatising an entire nation.
In his original tweet on Monday, Trump described US airlines and other industries being “particularly affected by the Chinese Virus”.
On Tuesday, he tweeted that some US states were “being hit hard by the Chinese Virus”.
Trump’s allies had previously referred to the pandemic as the “Chinese coronavirus”, but Beijing said it was “strongly indignant” over the phrase.