Trump warns over HK move
President Donald Trump warned China yesterday that the US would respond ‘‘very strongly’’ if Beijing imposed tighter control over Hong Kong, as tensions rise between the two countries amid fallout from the pandemic.
China’s government announced that national security legislation for Hong Kong will be proposed at its annual ‘‘rubber stamp’’ parliamentary sessions, which opened on Thursday, in the latest sign from Beijing plans to crack down on pro-democracy protests in the semiautonomous territory. ‘‘If it happens, we’ll address that very strongly,’’ Trump said as he took questions from the White House.
Trump has stepped up his attacks on China over the pandemic in recent days, appearing to directly blame Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, for a campaign of ‘‘disinformation’’ that helped spread Covid-19 globally.
In a rare shot at his Chinese counterpart, the US president write on Twitter on Thursday: ‘‘It all comes from the top. They could have easily stopped the plague, but they didn’t!’’
His comments came as a study suggested that around 36,000 fewer Americans would have died from the pandemic if the US had imposed social distancing measures just one week earlier than it did in mid-march.
According to the estimates from disease modellers at Columbia University in New York, if the US had introduced lockdowns two weeks earlier, on March 1, as many as 54,000 lives could have been saved by May 3. To date, more than 93,000 Americans have died from the virus, far outstripping any other country.
Trump branded the study a ‘‘political hit job’’ from a ‘‘liberal’’ institution. Discussing the action he took, he said: ‘‘I was so early, I was earlier than anybody thought. I put a ban on people coming in from China.’’
But in early March, Trump was still reassuring the public that they could go about their daily life safely, writing on Twitter: ‘‘Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!’’
Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, hit back against the Columbia University findings, saying: ‘‘What would have saved lives is if China had been transparent and the World Health Organisation had fulfilled its mission.’’
Trump also lashed out earlier Thursday, saying: ‘‘It was the ‘incompetence of China’, and nothing else, that did this mass worldwide killing.’’
In the early days of the pandemic, Trump was careful to maintain his relationship with Xi, even singling the Chinese leader out for praise.
However, as criticism of Trump’s handling of the crisis mounts at home, the president has accused China of covering up the scale of the initial outbreak and failing to prevent its spread, signalling he intends to make an antiChina approach a centrepiece of his November re-election bid.
China again threatened ‘‘countermeasures’’ in response as Beijing opened its parliamentary session after a delay of nearly three months because of the pandemic.
Thousands of delegates from across China are in Beijing for this year’s annual session of the country’s rubberstamp legislature and its advisory body.
The National People’s Congress session is more a chance for the authoritarian ruling Communist Party leadership to directly communicate its message than an occasion to debate or pass laws.
Top leaders including President and party head Xi and Premier Li Keqiang preside at the congress, with Li delivering a lengthy speech summarising the past year’s achievements and laying out priorities for the coming 12 months.
On Thursday, NPC spokesperson Zhang Yesui said the congress will consider a bill that could limit opposition activity in Hong Kong, appearing to confirm speculation that China will sidestep the semi-autonomous territory’s own lawmaking body in enacting legislation to crack down on activity Beijing considers subversive. Zhang said the bill aimed at ‘‘establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to safeguard national security’’.
Such amove has long been under consideration but was hastened by months of anti-government protests last year in the former British colony that was handed over to Chinese rule in 1997. – Telegraph Group, AP