WASHINGTON: Amid lockdown in several countries and growing concerns over Coronavirus pandemic, United States President Donald Trump’s use of term “China virus’’ has added more fuel to the ongoing blame game between the two countries over the outbreak of the deadly virus.
According to reports, President Donald Trump sent a tweet on Monday evening, noting that he plans to bail out airlines and other industries “that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus.” Only a few hours earlier, Trump held a White House news conference on the emerging coronavirus outbreak and was praised for finally offering a relatively sober assessment of the emerging disaster.
But shortly after that, the President tweeted, calling COVID-19 the “China virus” for the first time and giving voice to a hateful blame game that has been simmering among hardcore right-wingers for weeks. Trump, who has previously called the disease a “foreign virus,” tweeted: “The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus.”
The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 16, 2020
With the coronavirus spreading from China into the US and around the world, both nations are trading tit-for-tat claims about its origins. The tense back-and-forth over what to call the virus is the latest chapter in a broader clash between the world’s two largest economies that ranges from trade and military competition to network equipment made by Huawei Technologies Co.
Hours before the Trump’s tweet, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo told top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi the Trump administration strongly objects to China’s “efforts to shift blame” for the coronavirus to the US, according to a State Department readout.
Critics slammed the Trump tweet, calling it racist and potentially inciting a backlash against the Asian-American community. Meanwhile, Trump also released new guidelines to slow virus spread in the country.
President Trump urged all older Americans to stay home and everyone to avoid crowds and eating out at restaurants as part of sweeping guidelines meant to combat an expected surge of coronavirus cases. Scientists suspect that the virus first came to humans at a meat market in Wuhan that butchered exotic animals.
While COVID-19 -- the disease caused by the virus -- has largely come under control in China, it has killed more than 7,000 people around the world and severely disrupted daily life in Western countries. The pandemic comes at a time of wide-ranging tensions between the United States and China on issues from trade to human rights to Beijing's military buildup.
