US to announce ‘certain decisions’ on China today: Donald Trump

In the past few weeks, Trump has been very critical and vocal of China’s inability to control the spread of the novel coronavirus within its territory.

US President Donald Trump has said that the country would announce “certain decisions” on China on Friday, as he emphasised that Beijing should have stopped the coronavirus at the source.

Several countries in the world, including US have blamed China for the spread of coronavirus and its failure to provide timely information about the disease, leading to the death of over three lakh people and causing an unprecedented economic crisis.

On Thursday, Trump told media at the White House, “Tomorrow, we”re going to be having a press conference on China. So, we”ll be making certain decisions and we”ll be discussing them tomorrow,”

The deadly disease has killed nearly 360,000 people globally, including 102,000 in America alone.

Over 5.8 million people have been infected by the COVID-19 worldwide with 1.7 million in the US alone.

“It’s a very sad situation. It should have never happened. China should have stopped it at the source, but they didn”t do that”, the President added.

In the past few weeks, Trump has been very critical and vocal of China’s inability to control the spread of the novel coronavirus within its territory.

On May 14, Trump threatened to “cut off the whole relationship” with China.

Meanwhile, the pressure is building on his administration, mainly from the Republican lawmakers on this.

Earlier, Trump had said that he does not want to talk to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping right now, indicating his displeasure at the Chinese leadership’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak which has now spread across the world.

However, China has rejected all US allegations of a cover up regarding the COVID-19 outbreak.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, last week, China proposed a national security law for Hong Kong in response to last year’s violent pro-democracy protests that plunged the city into its deepest turmoil since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Hong Kong, an economic powerhouse, is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China. It has observed a “one country, two systems” policy since Britain returned sovereignty to China on July 1, 1997, which has allowed it certain freedoms the rest of China does not have.

Reacting to the proposed law, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo described on Wednesday, China’s announcement to tighten its control over Hong Kong as unilateral, arbitrary and disastrous, saying the former British colony no longer qualifies to be considered as autonomous under mainland China.

The proposal, which has been condemned by the United States and Hong Kong pro-democracy figures as an assault on the city’s freedoms, was tabled on the opening day of the week-long National People’s Congress.

The law gives China the authority to curb secession, subversion, terrorism, and foreign interference, something that was observed in pro democracy protests which gripped the city last year.