Don’t let China profit from this dreadful crisis

You reported last week that China filed a patent for a drug seen as one of the best potential weapons against Covid-19 the day after confirming humans pass on the virus. You also said Chinese officials delayed warning of a potential epidemic for six days.

Call me cynical and highly suspicious, but is it possible that China already has the vaccine but is waiting until the world’s economies are in meltdown before it claims to be the first to have successfully discovered a jab and then offer to sell it at hugely inflated prices? Time will tell.

Julie Perkin, Bristol

China appears to be executing the perfect business plan – create a deadly virus and the medical equipment which is needed to deal with it; export the virus, followed by the equipment, and make big profits in the process. Only Donald Trump is voicing discontent but we should also be doing so.

People have really done well in this country, trying to combat this killer virus, but we should not lose sight of the real villains of the piece – China. Mick Ferrie,

Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

Would it be possible for all of the world leaders to get together and impose a tax of, say, 20 per cent on all imports coming into each individual country from China to pay for the coronavirus pandemic and the disruption and deaths that it has caused? If it were not for the cover-up and deceitfulness surrounding the virus, it could have been contained. And if China profits by selling inferior PPE or buying into Western companies when their share price is at rockbottom, this cannot go unpunished.

I think we could teach the Chinese government a lesson and stop anything like this happening again. Michael Dodds, Sunderland

I wonder how Brexiteers reconcile calls for sanctions against China as a result of the Covid-19 crisis with their argument that China will be a major trading partner after leaving the EU? Perhaps we should have another referendum. John Jones,

Pevensey Bay, East Sussex