US President Donald Trump. [Source: CNN]
China’s Ambassador to the United Nations says the US has “created enough troubles for the world already” as the two nations continued to spar over the pandemic during a tense meeting of the UN Security Council.
US Representative to the UN Kelly Craft criticized China over what she says is a “decision to hide the origins of this virus, minimize its danger, and suppress scientific cooperation.”
Craft claimed Beijing’s actions “transformed a local epidemic into a global pandemic.”
China’s Zhang Jun swiftly rejected Craft’s characterization of events.
Zhang added that Beijing rejects the “baseless” accusations.
The spat came two days after US President Donald Trump used much of his pre-recorded video address to the General Assembly to blame China for the COVID-19 pandemic and for withholding information about the virus.
Trump accused Beijing of “allowing flights to leave China and infect the world” and referred to Covid-19 as the “China virus”.
In response, Zhang said the US had only itself to blame. Since January, the US has diagnosed more than 6 million coronavirus cases in its population and lost more than 200,000 lives to the illness.
The Russian representative at the Thursday session also criticized Craft’s accusations.
