Coronavirus: Donald Trump threatens to ‘cut off’ China ties, doesn’t want to speak to Xi Jinping
- US president says ‘ink barely dry’ on trade deal when ‘plague came over’
- In interview with Fox Business, Trump focused more on China’s response to outbreak than on its origin
US President Donald Trump expressed doubts over his recent trade agreement with Beijing because of the Covid-19 pandemic and suggested that America would save US$500 billion if Washington “cut off” the bilateral relationship.
Speaking about a wide range of grievances with China in a pre-recorded Fox Business Network interview, Trump said: “I have a very good relationship [with China’s President Xi Jinping], but I just, right now I don’t want to speak to him.”
“They should have never let [the pandemic] happen. So I make a great trade deal and now I say this doesn’t feel the same to me,” Trump said. “I’m very disappointed in China.”
“The ink was barely dry and the plague came over, and it doesn’t feel the same to me,” he said referring to the phase-one trade deal he signed with Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He in January, under which China is committed to buying an additional US$200 billion worth of US goods over two years.
Trump, however, said “they will buy US$250 billion”, without accounting for the extra US$50 billion.
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Doubts about China’s ability to meet the deal’s purchasing commitments have escalated for reasons on both sides, most directly or indirectly related to the pandemic.