Corona: Trump Triggers Beijing with “Chinese Virus” Tweet
Trump calling Coronavirus as “Chinese” has annoyed China. A foreign ministry spokesman cautioned the United States to take care of its own business before demonizing China. The first cases of the novel coronavirus were registered in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Dec 2019. The Chinese authorities have last week last week alleged US Army of bringing virus to the mainland China in an attempt to cripple its booming economy. The conspiracy theory led US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issuing a response to counter the unfounded accusation and demanded the virus hit state to stop shifting the blame on others and spreading disinformation when they were the very reason for the creation and spread of disease which they couldn’t handle.
So far more than 170,000 cases have been registered worldwide with over 80,000 alone in Chinese region. On Tuesday Beijing reported that it had received just one new local case on their land with all other new cases brought into the country.
Trump who is not new to controversial tweets, earlier on Monday angered Beijing when he described Covid-19 as “Chinese Virus”. The WHO has warned against linking the novel disease to any particular region or group as it amounts to stigmatization. However, a number of US officials concerned with the US response to the pandemic have termed it as Household Chinese product with the Secretary of State, Pompeo, referring it as Wuhan Virus.
Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said Trump’s tweet is only helping the open stigmatization of China.
“We urge the United States to correct its mistake and stop its groundless accessions against China,” he continued.
China’s official news agency, Xinhua described Trump’s remarks as “racist and Xenophobic” and are a testament to his irresponsibility and incompetence. The statement was also condemned by New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio who said the phrase risked “fueling more bigotry” against Asian-Americans.
China and United States are at odds since Trump took over the Presidency and imposed barrage of tariffs in a wider trade war as he accused the Asians of intellectual property theft and crooked trading practices. While in China, the people perceive the Donald Trump-led America is trying to obstruct it from attaining #1 rank among global economic powers.
The bitter-trade war has seen both countries slapping hundreds of billions of tit-for-tat tariffs against each other. However, the tensions seemed easing and ice began to melt at the start of the new year when a partial resolution was reached to address each other’s issue in January.
