Joint coronavirus response could ‘restore trust’ in US-China relations

Chinese ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai says relationship should be based on more than economics and trade, in CCTV interview

Wuhan was ‘first victim’ of the pandemic and China should not be held responsible, he adds

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China’s ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai during an interview on Chinese state television. Photo: CCTV

Published: 9:00pm, 6 May 2020Updated: 11:19pm, 6 May 2020

China’s top envoy to the US said the two countries should not rely solely on trade to salvage their worsening ties amid the coronavirus crisis and fresh concerns of a renewed trade war.

Cui Tiankai said the two countries should instead explore new avenues in managing their relations, such as cooperation on public health and joint efforts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. “I think that economic and trade relations should not be the only ballast stone in Sino-US relations,” he said in an interview aired on Tuesday by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

“For a relationship that has such significant impact on the world, there shouldn’t be just one ballast stone in stabilising the relations. There should be more ballast and this is exactly what we are working on now. This is what we need to do. For example, we can cooperate on pandemic control and public health. These can also be ballast stones for China-US relations. Such work affects the life of so many people, and there are a lot of things we can do,” he said.

Cui said China had shared information with the US at the earliest possible time and had been supporting its fight against the disease. He said the two countries’ centres for disease control and prevention, as well as other government agencies, had been in close communication since January 4. China had provided more than 4 billion masks to the US, he added.

Cui’s remarks followed a threat by US President Donald Trump to terminate the phase one trade deal if China failed to fulfil its promise to buy US$200 billion more in American goods and services. There has been speculation about China’s ability to stick to the agreement after its economy contracted for the first time since at least 1992 after months of lockdown.