Coronavirus: China accuses US of ‘dark mentality and dangerous action’
- Commentary in Communist Party mouthpiece takes aim at travel restrictions and politicians using epidemic to ‘smear China’
- It also slams Washington for delay in delivering promised funds to combat the outbreak
People’s Daily, a mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, published a commentary on Monday slamming Washington for its “dark mentality and dangerous action” during the outbreak, which originated in central China.
The commentary under the pen name Zhong Sheng – a homonym in Chinese for the “voice of China” – also hit out at Washington’s latest foreign aid budget proposal that would halve US funding to the World Health Organisation, which has led international efforts to combat the pneumonia-like virus.
And it targeted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s tweet on February 8 that the US would provide an additional US$100 million to “support China in combating the coronavirus”, on top of hundreds of millions already donated, in a commitment that “demonstrates strong US leadership in response to the outbreak”.
US officials said in a briefing two days later that Washington was willing to spend up to a ceiling of US$100 million to fight the new coronavirus, without providing a detailed breakdown, and that protective goggles and surgical gowns had been sent to Laos, which borders China to the south. James Richardson, the State Department’s director of foreign assistance, said the US “is the largest donor overall to global health around the world” and that it could assist bilaterally as well as through multilateral organisations such as the WHO.
The commentary said if the US “genuinely wants to help Laos and other Southeast Asian countries fight the epidemic, there is naturally nothing wrong with that since this is a public health challenge that the world collectively needs to face”, and that constructive cooperation should be welcomed.
