The escalating war of words between the world’s two largest economies – especially Trump’s latest remarks pinning the blame on China and saying the US would investigate the situation – looks set to further poison the atmosphere and dim prospects for a diplomatic truce.
“They have only one objective: to shirk their responsibility for their own poor epidemic prevention and control measures and divert public attention,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Tuesday, without naming Trump.
“I don’t know what the motive is behind calling for an investigation, seeking damages and compensation. This is political manipulation.”
On Monday Trump told a White House briefing “there are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable” when commenting on the latest polls showing increasing numbers of Americans blamed China for the pandemic and would back legal efforts to seek compensation.
“We’re doing very serious investigations,” he said. “We are not happy with that whole situation because we believe it could have been stopped at the source. It could have been stopped quickly, and it wouldn’t have spread all over the world.”
Trump indicated that his administration may seek reparations from China following a call by German tabloid Bild for China to pay more than US$160 billion in compensation for its failure to contain the virus within its borders.
“We have ways of doing things a lot easier than that. And we’re talking about a lot more money than Germany is talking about,” Trump said.
“We haven’t determined the final amount yet. It’s very substantial. If you take a look at the world – I mean, this is worldwide damage.”
Two weeks ago Trump also said the US was “doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation” and said he had discussed the Wuhan Institute of Virology with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping after claims that the virus may have escaped from the facility began circulating.
A recent poll by Redfield & Wilton Strategies showed China’s image had suffered tremendously in the United States, with the number of Americans believing China was “not to blame at all” for the pandemic dropping from 16 per cent a month ago to 10 per cent last week.
The same poll of 1,500 eligible voters also showed 70 per cent of Americans would back an inquiry into the origin of the virus and half of them supported class action lawsuits in their states to seek damages from China.
Last week the US state of Missouri said it would sue the Chinese government over the outbreak – a move Beijing dismissed as having “no factual or legal basis”.
On Tuesday Geng also denounced White House trade adviser Peter Navarro as a “liar”, rejecting his claims that the country had hoarded medical equipment and sent low quality and even counterfeit coronavirus antibody test kits to the US.
In an interview on Saturday with Fox News, Navarro, a staunch China critic, equated the current diplomatic spat to “a war that China started by spawning the virus, by hiding the virus, by hoarding personal protective equipment during the time it hid the virus”.
After a short lull in the wake of Trump’s telephone conversation with Xi late last month, both sides have resumed their rancorous blame game.
On Monday, in a rare departure from past protocols, China’s state broadcaster CCTV directly criticised US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during its prime-time news bulletin.
“In his position as a top US diplomat, Pompeo has shown no professionalism or responsibility whatsoever,” viewers were told.
“Instead, he spreads a political virus of estrangement through falsehoods. He has turned himself into an obstacle setting back all humanity. One could say, he is an accomplice to the coronavirus.”
Despite growing distrust and antagonism in their decades-long, love-hate relationship, both sides usually refrain from singling out senior officials directly.
The recent comments by Trump and senior aides add to the growing international pressure for greater transparency from China over the outbreak.
Australia recently angered Beijing by calling for an international inquiry.
Huang Jing, an academic from Beijing Language and Culture University’s Institute of International and Regional Studies, said it was not surprising that Trump was trying to salvage his bid for re-election by deflecting the blame to China as the Covid-19 outbreak worsened.
“China should stay calm and avoid 'overreacting' while trying to prevent [the pursuit of investigations and reparations] from developing into a global trend,” he said.
