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Donald Trump once again lashes out at China over its failure to contain coronavirus

Speed News Desk 14 May 2020, 21:42 IST

Donald Trump once again lashes out at China over its failure to contain coronavirus

US President Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out at China and stated that he was very disappointed in China as for not being able to rein in the novel coronavirus, saying that the global pandemic has cast doubts over US-China trade deal.

The coronavirus outbreak emanated in China’s Wuhan city in December and was spreading silently just as US and China penned a Phase 1 trade deal extolled by the Republican president as a vital accomplishment.

"I'm very disappointed in China," the US President said in an interview broadcast Thursday on Fox Business Network.

"They should have never let this happen. So I make a great trade deal and now I say this doesn't feel the same to me. The ink was barely dry and the plague came over. And it doesn't feel the same to me," Trump added.

Under the Phase 1 deal penned in January, China pledged to buy at least $200 billion in additional U.S. goods and services over two years while Washington agreed to roll back tariffs in stages on Chinese goods.

A Chinese state-run newspaper has reported that some government advisers in Beijing were suggesting renegotiation and possibly invalidating the agreement.

Donald Trump said again that he was not interested in renegotiating.

While US intelligence agencies said the virus did not appear to be manmade or genetically modified, Mike Pompeo said in May that there is "a significant amount of evidence" the virus came from a lab in Wuhan.

His comment followed US President’s statement on 30th April that he was sure the coronavirus may have emanated in a virology lab in China.

During the Fox Business interview, which was recorded on Wednesday, Donald Trump concentrated more on China's reaction to the outbreak than on its origin.

"We have a lot of information, and it's not good. Whether it came from the lab or came from the bats, it all came from China, and they should have stopped it. They could have stopped it, at the source," Trump said.

"It got out of control."

Also Read: Republicans fear of losing Senate over Donald Trump's handling of pandemic

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