US President Donald Trump blasted China on Tuesday for “ unleashing” “ the plague of the “ China virus” “ onto the world, demanding that the United Nations must hold Beijing accountable for failing to contain the coronavirus that has killed nearly one million people across the world, including 200,000 Americans.
“ 75 years after the end of World War II and the founding of the United Nations, we are once again engaged in a great global struggle. We have waged a fierce battle against the invisible enemy - the China virus - which has claimed countless lives in 188 countries,” Trump said in a video statement to the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.
Trump demanded that China, where the coronavirus emerged, be held accountable for failure to control the virus and for allowing it to spread across the world.
“ As we pursue this bright future, we must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world: China,” he said.
Doubling down on Beijing, Trump said that China condemned his travel ban on their country, even as they cancelled domestic flights and locked citizens in their homes.
“ In the earliest days of the virus, China locked down travel domestically while allowing flights to leave China and infect the world,” Trump said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has so far infected over 30 million people and more than 958,000 people have died. The US, with 6.7 million infections, crossed the grim milestone of 200,000 deaths.
“ The Chinese government, and the World Health Organization -- which is virtually controlled by China -- falsely declared that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission,” Trump said.
“ Later, they falsely said people without symptoms would not spread the disease. The United Nations must hold China accountable for their actions,” he said.
Trump also slammed China for dumping millions and millions of tonnes of plastic and trash into the oceans every year, overfishing other countries’ waters, destroying vast swaths of coral reef, and emitting “ more toxic mercury into the atmosphere than any country anywhere in the world.
“ China’s carbon emissions are nearly twice what the US has, and it’s rising fast,” he said, adding that he withdrew from the “ one-sided” Paris Climate Accord and last year America reduced its carbon emissions by more than any country in the agreement.