China has denied any suggestion of wrongdoing and pointed out Chinese authorities continuously shared information about the novel coronavirus throughout the pandemic. The state of Missouri this week announced they have now sued China over their handling of the pandemic and US President Donald Trump cast doubts on the origin of the virus. Due to the growing tension between Washington D.C. and Beijing, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai suggested there will be “serious rethinking” of relations with the US in the future.
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Speaking to Bloomberg, Mr Cui said: “I think I should be hoping for more than just a pause in tensions but a serious rethinking of the very foundations of this important relationship.
“What worries me is indeed the lack of transparency, not in terms of the size, not in terms of medical treatment, but in terms of political developments.
“Especially in the United States. We have made it public, we have shared everything we’ve learned with the World Health Organisation and with the medical communities of other countries, including the United States.”
Mr Cui urged President Trump to focus on joint efforts to find a vaccine and cure for the coronavirus instead of having his Administration “preoccupied in their efforts for stigmatization and groundless accusation.”
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The Chinese Ambassador also suggested the pandemic could help Sino-American relationship to shift to a “more realistic, forward-looking foundation” as he insisted collaboration between Mr Trump and President Xi Jinping has remained “good”.
He added: “Fortunately at the top level, there has been a good working relationship between the two presidents.
“But of course we have to do more at lower levels.”
China has been repeatedly accused of concealing the true death toll of COVID-19 after officials updated the number of victims in the epicentre of Wuhan by 1,290, bringing the total to 3,869.
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Wuhan officials defended the changes, saying they were the result of an adjustment that added to the death toll people who died at home.
President Trump last week said his Government is now trying to determine whether the coronavirus originally emanated from a research lab in Wuhan.
But the World Health Organisation (WHO) insisted there is no evidence the virus was created, with spokeswoman Fadela Chaib saying: “All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed virus in a lab or somewhere else
“It is probable, likely that the virus is of animal origin.”
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White House adviser Peter Navarro on Monday claimed Beijing may have been withholding data on early infections in a bid to win the commercial race to create a vaccine.
Mr Navarro told Fox Business Network: ”One of the reasons that they may not have let us in and given us the data on this virus early, is they’re racing to get a vaccine and they think this is just a competitive business race, it’s a business proposition so that they can sell the vaccines to the world.”
“But we’re going to beat them. We’re going to beat them because of President Trump’s leadership. We’re going to beat them because HHS has already got a five-company horse race,” he added, referring to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Mr Navarro, an outspoken critic of China, has been charged by President Trump to work on supply-line issues relating to the coronavirus pandemic.
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