Trump claims China 'will do anything they can' to keep him from being reelected

Rebecca Klar
The Hill
Wed, 29 Apr 2020 11:00 UTC

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US President Donald Trump

President Trump said Wednesday that he thinks China is trying to keep him from getting reelected this year. "China will do anything they can to have me lose this race," Trump said in an interview with Reuters.

He told the newswire that Beijing wants former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to win in November to ease pressure that Trump has placed on China over trade and other issues.

"They're constantly using public relations to try to make it like they're innocent parties," Trump said of Chinese officials.

A spokesperson for the Biden campaign was not immediately available for comment.

Trump also said that he thinks China should have been more active in letting the world know about the coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, sooner.

Asked if he would consider using tariffs or debt write-offs for China, Trump said "there are many things I can do," but did not offer specifics, according to Reuters. "We're looking for what happened," he added of the coronavirus outbreak.

Trump has faced his own criticism over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic; Reuters noted that a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted this week found that just 43 percent of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the coronavirus.

A separate Emerson College poll released Tuesday found Trump's approval rating for his handling of the crisis dropped 10 points this month to 39 percent.

Across the U.S. more than 1 million COVID-19 cases and 61,123 deaths have been reported, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Comment: Not everything is 'Made in China!'

China hits back, claims 'no interest' in the US vote

China has rejected any allegations it planned to meddle in the US election in November.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said during a daily briefing that "the US presidential election is an internal affair, we have no interest in interfering in it," adding "we hope the people of the US will not drag China into its election politics."

Geng stated that China is not an "accomplice" of the virus, but a victim, like the rest of the world, and that "certain politicians" have attempted to shift the blame from their own poor handling of the outbreak to blaming China. "The US should know this: the enemy is the virus, not China," he added.