China and the US should be in cooperation in the war against the pandemic for the sake of reviving the economy and rebooting industrial production, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Friday.
Zhao mentioned this during a media briefing while commenting on the warning by the U.S. President Donald Trump’s that bilateral ties might be halted over Beijing’s alleged responsibility for unleashing the coronavirus.
Trump, in an interview with Fox News on Thursday said that the US might cut all ties with China in light of Beijing’s coronavirus-related policies.
“The stable development of U.S.-Chinese relations is in fundamental interest of people from both countries and is also favourable for global peace and stability.
“China and the United States should now strengthen cooperation in combating the COVID-19 epidemic in order to defeat the coronavirus as soon as possible, cure patients, resume production, and develop the economy,” the spokesman said.
Trump has repeatedly made claims, though without any existing evidence, that the virus that caused deaths, lockdowns, and economic standstill all around the world had in fact been developed in a lab in Wuhan, a Chinese city in the Hubei province from where the first reports of an abnormal respiratory disease came last December.
The U.S. president threatened China with consequences if the country is proven responsibile for unleashing the virus.
The host on Thursday asked Trump to comment on a statement by one of the U.S. senators that the U.S. could stop issuing visas to Chinese students in retaliation. Trump said that his country could possibly go as far as cutting all bilateral ties altogether.
So far, China has consistently denied all accusations, stressing that its policies were transparent throughout the outbreak.
Source: https://punchng.com/china-replies-trump-over-threat-to-cut-off-ties/