Trump adviser Peter Navarro claims China hit US with 'weaponized virus', calls Biden Chinese candidate
The Donald Trump administration has taken on China again over the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. On July 12, Peter Navarro, director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, accused Beijing of sending "weaponized virus" to target the US besides calling presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as the "candidate of the Chinese Communist Party". President Trump himself and his top aides such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have in the past held China responsible for making the planet suffer by not cautioning others about the outbreak. Washington, however, has failed to produce any evidence to back its claim so far and its allegations have any seen a war of words with Beijing.
Navarro, who will turn 71 on July 15, told Fox News, "We were cruising along until the Chinese Communist Party basically hit us with that deadly virus, that weaponized virus. And I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the first year that China had a down economy was the same year now that they're coming after us in all sorts of ways.” The US is the worst-hit nation in the world with more than 3.3M people testing positive and over 135,000 deaths.
The scientific community has so far dismissed the theory that the coronavirus pandemic started off in a lab in China and was intentionally released to target America. Although they have not ruled out that the virus could have possibly leaked accidentally from a lab, a large section still believes that the virus was transmitted to humans naturally.
"There are lots of data and lots of evidence, as well as previous examples of this coming from nature. We have exactly zero evidence or data of this having any connection to a lab," Kristian Andersen, a professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, told the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in May. China has retaliated against the US administration’s allegations saying it was trying to hide its own failure in containing the impact of the pandemic.
While China was initially hit by the coronavirus pandemic late last year, its epicenter later shifted to Europe, American and South Asia with China having contained its own impact. The Asian powerhouse now has a little over 85,000 cases and below 5,000 deaths, as per the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
Navarro calls Biden a 'poll-driven plagiarist'
Navarro, who has often changed his political affiliations and is currently a Republican, also slammed former vice president Biden saying: "And Joe Biden is the candidate of the Chinese Communist Party. Trump, buy American. Biden, buy China." The Trump campaign tried to show that Biden was backed by China a few months ago but there was a lack of solid evidence.
"He's just blatantly ripping off the president's 'Buy American' agenda, which goes back to the president going down the escalator with beautiful Melania," Navarro told Fox News’s 'Sunday Morning Futures'. He even blasted the 77-year-old as a "poll-driven plagiarist". "I’ve personally been at the president's side when he signed at least seven Buy American orders, and that's seven more than Biden signed or Obama signed during their term," he added.