Trump torches China for sending 'very bad gift' of coronavirus to US as death toll crosses 100,000
President Donald Trump, on Thurday, May 28, slammed China for sending "a very bad gift" of coronavirus to the rest of the world. The Republican made the remark after the United States' coronavirus death toll crossed 100,000 mark with more than 1.7 million people infected with the deadly virus in the country (according to Johns Hopkins University).
"All over the World the CoronaVirus, a very bad 'gift' from China, marches on. Not good!" Trump tweeted. The president has earlier faced criticism for consistently referring to Covid-19 as "the Chinese virus." He resorted to using the virus' proper name after a spate of racist attacks on Asian Americans in the country. However, it appears that Trump has stepped up his anti-Chinese rhetoric again and was seen using the phrase "China virus" earlier this week.
Trump's attack on China came after he acknowledged the number of American lives lost to the novel coronavirus. "We have just reached a very sad milestone with the coronavirus deaths reaching 100,000," he tweeted. "To all of the families & friends of those who have passed, I want to extend my heartfelt sympathy & love for everything that these great people stood for & represent. God be with you!"
It is widely believed that the novel coronavirus originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. Although scientists researching the origin of the pandemic have stated that it is highly likely that the virus was based from bats to an intermediate species being sold at a wet market in Wuhan, multiple people have propagated a conspiracy theory that it instead originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including President Donald Trump.
Trump and his secretary of state Mike Pompeo recently stated that the US government has "enormous evidence" suggesting that the virus leaked from Wuhan pathogen laboratory. The Wuhan lab is one of the two sites in China which has clearance to study the most dangerous pathogens found across the world. The World Health Organisation (WHO) denounced the conspiracy theory earlier this month, stating that it had no evidence supporting the "speculative claims". The health agency's statement had come shortly after Trump's suggestion that the WHO, which praised China's efforts of fighting the virus, was too trusting of the country.
Wuhan Institute of Virology's director, Wang Yanyi, last week, had also slammed the claims that the deadly novel coronavirus came from his lab, calling it "pure fabrication". Yanyi made the statement while addressing Chinese media on Sunday, May 24, and added that his team did not even know about the existence of the virus. We had "no knowledge before that nor had we ever encountered, researched, or kept the virus," he said.
Ever since the outbreak of the virus, China's communist government has come under heavy scrutiny with many believing that the state has been lying about the scale of coronavirus outbreak in the region.
President Trump, however, also faces accusation of lying and blaming China in an attempt to take the attention off his own supposed mishandling of the coronavirus crisis in the country. The Republican, in January, had appreciated Chinese President Xi Jinping’s efforts to combat the virus, saying "the United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency." Later, in February, Trump played down the threat posed by the virus in the US, as experts claimed that an earlier lockdown in the country could have saved hundreds of lives.