China on Wednesday said the US should not use tariffs as weapons after President Donald Trump threatened to impose more trade taxes on Chinese goods as punishment for Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
Trump said on Friday that raising tariffs on China was “certainly an option” as he considers ways to retaliate against Beijing for the coronavirus pandemic.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying said tariffs in general hurt all parties involved.
“So the US should stop thinking it can use tariffs as a weapon and a big stick to coerce other countries,” Hua said at the regular ministry briefing on Wednesday.
China and the US have been trading barbs and blames on the Covid-19 pandemic, its origins and how each has handled it.
Hua urged the United States not to try to divert attention from its own mismanagement of its coronavirus epidemic by shifting blame onto China.
“What has the US done in the past few months? How did it allow the outbreak to develop to the stage today? Is this how a government should be responsible to its people?” she asked.
Responding to a question, Hua said as of May 1, China has provided more than 5.3 billion masks, 330 million pairs of surgical gloves, 38.85 million pieces of protective clothing, 5.98 million pairs of goggles, and nearly 7,500 ventilators to the US.
“Therefore, the claims about China’s so-called concealment of epidemic situation, delay of notification, and profit from epidemic situation are purely nonsense…,” Hua added.
“The most urgent task is to control the outbreak in the U.S. and to save as many lives as possible … Saving lives should take precedence over political self-interest,” she said.
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