Accusations from China: Donald Trump is pilloried - is the US to blame for the coronavirus pandemic?

Accusations from China: Donald Trump is pilloried - is the US to blame for the coronavirus pandemic? Article from loc/news.de/stg • 1 hour • 3 minutes reading time According to an argument put forward by China, the US under Donald Trump is to blame for the devastating coronavirus pandemic. More than 676 million people were infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the first three years of the coronavirus pandemic, according to surveys by Johns Hopkins University in the US, and more than 6.8 million of those infected died from their coronavirus infection. Experts continue to debate the origin of the global pandemic, which began its devastating triumphant march in China at the end of 2019. Claims that the coronavirus originated in Chinese laboratories are countered by the theory that the virus jumped from bats offered for consumption to humans in markets in the Chinese province of Wuhan. Turmoil over Coronavirus Origin: China Surprises with Statement on Pandemic Now, a completely different approach to how the coronavirus could trigger a devastating pandemic is suddenly emerging: According to recent reports in the British "Daily Star" and the "Daily Express," an official document in China has now blamed the US for the coronavirus pandemic. Is the US to blame for the coronavirus pandemic? China Makes Serious Accusations China has declared in an official document that COVID-19 originated in the US. The letter, published by Beijing on April 30, 2025, claims that the virus has killed approximately 1.2 million Americans and around seven million people worldwide and originated in the United States. In the report, Chinese officials accuse the US government of shifting blame and using the search for its origins as a political tool to distract from its own failures instead of addressing its failures in combating COVID-19. The Chinese government is demanding a "thorough and in-depth investigation" into the virus's origin in the United States. It demands that "the United States respond to the legitimate concerns of the international community and provide a responsible response to the world." China claims to have evidence of US culpability in the coronavirus pandemic The Chinese document contains serious accusations against the United States. According to the document, there is "substantial evidence" that COVID-19 appeared in the United States earlier than officially claimed and before the outbreak in China. Beijing accuses Washington of already knowing in January 2020 "that an epidemic of a novel coronavirus was spreading rapidly within its borders" but downplaying the seriousness of the situation. The US government has repeatedly compared COVID-19 to the flu and claimed it would automatically disappear one day. Donald Trump Advocates Laboratory Accident as Origin of Coronavirus Pandemic The Chinese government is sharply warning the US against continuing to "play deaf and dumb," as this could harm the international community. China also claims that the US has made it the "primary scapegoat for its own failed COVID-19 response." Contrary to China's claims, both the CIA and the FBI maintain that evidence points to the Wuhan laboratory as the origin of the virus. This theory was initially criticized for perceived racist overtones, but has gained traction since Trump's second term. The prevailing scientific theory, however, continues to hold that the coronavirus entered the human population after being transmitted between various animal hosts. In early April 2025, the White House launched a new coronavirus website with the official statement that the coronavirus escaped from the laboratories of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). At the same time, the US government criticized former President Joe Biden and leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci for their pandemic management. Is China taking revenge for Trump's tariff war with the coronavirus accusation? The release of the Chinese statement comes against the backdrop of increasing economic tensions between the two superpowers. Tariffs in the trade war between China and the US have now risen to approximately 125 percent. Former US President Trump had already claimed at the beginning of the pandemic that COVID-19 had leaked from laboratories in Wuhan. He even described this as the "only plausible" explanation for the pandemic. The Chinese government accuses the US of "the US government's indifference and delayed action wasting the valuable time that China had secured for the global fight against the pandemic." This accusation further exacerbates the already strained relations between the two economic powers.