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VIRUS-CHINA-US-DIPLOMACY
China asks US to ‘meet halfway’ after Trump threatens to cut ties
BEIJING, May 15, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – China on Friday urged the United States to
meet it halfway and strengthen cooperation in the fight against the
coronavirus pandemic after President Donald Trump threatened to sever
bilateral ties.
Relations between the world’s two largest economies have deteriorated in
recent weeks, with both sides trading barbs over the origins of the virus that
has killed more than 300,000 people.
“To maintain the steady development of China-US relations is in the
fundamental interests of the people in both countries, and is conducive to
world peace and stability,” said foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at a
press briefing.
“At present, China and the US should continue to strengthen cooperation
against the epidemic, defeat the epidemic as soon as possible, treat patients,
and restore economy and production. But it requires the US to meet halfway
with China.”
The comments came after Trump further hardened his rhetoric towards China,
threatening to cut ties with the rival superpower completely as relations have
steadily deteriorated over the pandemic.
“There are many things we could do … We could cut off the whole
relationship,” Trump said Thursday in an interview with Fox Business News.
“You’d save $500 billion if you cut off the whole relationship.”
Trump said that his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping is “very
good” but added: “right now I just don’t want to speak to him”.
The threat came a week after a trade call between US and Chinese trade
negotiators in which both sides stressed their commitment to the Phase One
trade deal reached in January.
However, fulfilment of the deal looks increasingly tenuous in the face of
the pandemic and a looming global economic downturn.
In the pact signed in January, China agreed to buy $200 billion more in US
goods over two years than it did in 2017 — before the trade war erupted and
triggered tariffs on billions of dollars of two-way trade.
Tensions have ratcheted up between Washington and Beijing as they traded
barbs over the origin of the pandemic that first appeared in late 2019 in the
Chinese city of Wuhan, which Trump has dubbed the “Plague from China.”
BSS/AFP/MMA/1515HRS