A spat between the US and China over a novel coronavirus yesterday escalated as US President Donald Trump angered Beijing by referring to the pathogen as the “Chinese Virus.”
The two countries have sparred over the origin of the virus for days, with a Chinese official promoting conspiracy theories claiming it was brought to China by the US army and US officials using terms seen as stigmatizing a nation.
“The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus,” Trump tweeted on Monday night.
Trump’s allies had previously referred to the pandemic as the “Chinese coronavirus.”
Beijing yesterday said it was “strongly indignant” over the phrase, which it called “a kind of stigmatization.”
The US should “immediately stop its unjustified accusations against China,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) told reporters.
A commentary by Xinhua news agency said using “racist and xenophobic names to cast blame for the outbreak on other countries can only reveal politicians’ irresponsibility and incompetence which will intensify virus fears.”
The war of words reignited diplomatic tensions between the two countries, which have tussled over trade and other disputes since Trump took office.
Trump’s comments were criticized inside the US, with warnings it could incite a backlash against the Asian-American community.
“Our Asian-American communities — people YOU serve — are already suffering. They don’t need you fueling more bigotry,” tweeted New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose state is one of the hardest-hit by the virus in the US.
The new coronavirus virus was first detected late last year, with Chinese health officials initially saying its source was a live animal market in the city of Wuhan, whose government had initially tried to cover up the outbreak.
However, China has sought to distance itself from the virus, saying the origin is still unknown, while seeking global goodwill by offering aid to countries facing serious outbreaks.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a phone call he initiated with Chinese Communist Party Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) voiced anger that Beijing has used official channels “to shift blame for COVID-19 to the United States,” the US Department of State said.
Pompeo “stressed that this is not the time to spread disinformation and outlandish rumors, but rather a time for all nations to come together to fight this common threat,” the department added.
The State Department on Friday summoned Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai (崔天凱) to denounce Beijing’s promotion of a conspiracy theory that had gained wide attention on social media.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) suggested on Twitter last week that “patient zero” in the global pandemic might have come from the US.
“It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation,” tweeted Zhao, who is known for his provocative statements on social media.
Pompeo himself has sought to link China to the global pandemic, repeatedly referring to the “Wuhan virus,” despite advice from health professionals that such geographic labels can be stigmatizing.
Yang issued a “stern warning to the United States that any scheme to smear China will be doomed to fail,” Xinhua said in its summary of the call with Pompeo.
He “noted that some US politicians have frequently slandered China and its anti-epidemic efforts and stigmatized the country, which has enraged the Chinese people,” Xinhua said.
Yang called on the US side to “correct its wrongful behavior.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS