Coronavirus: Beijing holds fire on Donald Trump’s threat ‘to make China pay’
- Chinese officials and state media muted on US president’s accusations of blame for the pandemic
- Rhetoric unlikely to lead down path of military confrontation, analysts say
In a video posted on Twitter on Thursday, Trump – who returned to the White House on Monday after being treated for the coronavirus – vowed that China “will pay a big price for what they did to the world, and to us”, his second such video threat within 24 hours.
The backdrops for the two messages were slightly different, although both were on the White House grounds, part of a storm of tweets, videos and repostings in recent days as he has sought to project an image that he is back in charge.
Trump then went further in an appearance on the Fox Business network on Thursday. “They want to keep me happy,” Trump said, apparently referring to the Chinese government. “Because they know that I’m a hair-trigger when it comes to them and I’m sick of them. Everything that we have – we have that Covid, the China virus – because of them. You look back at other infections that we’ve gotten because of them – this isn’t the first time.”
