Trump administration mulling how to punish China over coronavirus pandemic
- US president has shown increasing frustration with Beijing as American economy slumps amid outbreak, hurting his re-election chances
- A range of retaliatory measures are being discussed but efforts are still in early stages, US official says
US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened China with fresh tariffs as he stepped up his attacks on Beijing over the coronavirus crisis, saying he had seen evidence linking a Wuhan lab to the contagion.
Trump did not mince words at a White House event on Thursday, when asked if he had seen evidence that gave him a “high degree of confidence” the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“Yes, yes I have,” he said, declining to give specifics. “I can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that.”
The Chinese state-backed Wuhan Institute of Virology has dismissed the allegations, and other US officials have downplayed their likelihood. Most experts believe the virus originated in a market selling wildlife in Wuhan and jumped from animals to people.
Trump has shown increasing frustration with China in recent weeks over the pandemic, which has cost tens of thousands of lives in the United States alone, sparked an economic contraction and threatened his chances of re-election in November.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that a range of retaliatory measures were under discussion but that it had not yet reached the level of Trump’s top national security team or been taken to the president.