The level of distrust between the United States has reached a stage where Donald Trump is now issuing warnings of cutting off ties with Beijing. Not only that, Trump is so piqued with China that he is refusing to talk to Xi Jinping at this moment.
Talking to Fox Business Network broadcast on Thursday, Trump expressed his unhappiness with China’s failure to contain COVID-19 and added that he was no longer enthusiastic about the trade deal he had signed with China.
“They should have never let this happen,” Trump said. “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.”
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Trump also said that though he enjoys a good relationship with Xi Jinping, he was not interested in talking to him at this stage.
“I have a very good relationship [with him] but . . . right now I don’t want to speak to him,” Trump said.
When asked to respond to a Republican senator’s suggestion that U.S. visas be denied to Chinese students applying to study in fields related to national security, such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence, Trump said “There are many things we could do. We could do things. We could cut off the whole relationship.”
Responding to Trump’s statement, the Chinese foreign ministry urged the US to abandon its cold war and zero-sum mentality.
“Stable development of China-US relations serves the fundamental interests of both countries. The two sides should strengthen anti-epidemic co-operation, win the war against the epidemic, treat patents and resume economic production. But this requires the US to meet China halfway,” Zhao Lijian, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said.
