US President, Donald Trump has used his UN General Assembly speech to attack China, saying it must be held accountable for the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He accused China of allowing the coronavirus to “leave China and infect the world”. This year’s summit at New York is largely being held virtually.
President Trump used his address to tout his achievements and tear into china as tensions between the two countries continue to grow.
“We must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague on to the world – China,” he said.
“In the earliest days of the virus China locked down travel domestically, while allowing flights to leave China and infect the world. China condemned my travel ban on their country, even as they cancelled domestic flights and locked citizens in their homes,” he added.
President Trump, whose own record on coronavirus is under close scrutiny as the US heads towards elections, has frequently accused Beijing of covering up the virus, saying they could have stopped the disease spreading. China has called the attacks an unfounded distraction.
The president promised to distribute a vaccine and said: “We will defeat the virus, we will defeat the virus, and we will end the pandemic” and enter a new era of prosperity, cooperation and peace.
The US death toll for coronavirus, at nearly 200,000, is the highest in the world and President Trump has often downplayed the disease.
Tensions are also high between the US and China on a number of other issues, including trade, technology, Hong Kong and China’s treatment of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province.
Speaking soon after the President Trump, Chinese President, Xi Jinping emphasized that Beijing has “no intention to fight either a Cold War or a hot one with any country,” as tensions grow between China and the United States.
“We will continue to narrow differences and resolve disputes with others through dialogue and negotiation. We will not seek to develop only ourselves or engage in zero sum game,” he said.
He further warned against the risks of a “clash of civilisations” adding that the world must not “politicize” the fight against the coronavirus.
“Facing the virus, we should enhance solidarity and get through this together. We should follow the guidance of science, give full play to the leading role of the World Health Organization.”
The UN headquarters would normally be full of world leaders and their representatives, but this year due to the coronavirus outbreak leaders have provided pre-recorded messages.
The assembly was opened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who, without naming China or the US warned “we must do everything to avoid a new Cold War”.
“We are moving in a very dangerous direction,” he said. “Our world cannot afford a future where the two largest economies split the globe in a great fracture – each with its own trade and financial rules and internet and artificial intelligence capacities. We must avoid this at all costs.”
He said there was no room for self-interest in the face of the coronavirus. “Populism and nationalism have failed,” he said. “Those approaches to contain the virus have often made things manifestly worse.”
