Further affecting the already strained relationship with the Asian Giant, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is already formulating a plan to punish China. This is due to the fact that Trump's party is still asserting that China is responsible for the coronavirus pandemic.
Based on multiple sources inside the White House, the administration considers using various tools in order to impose the so-called punishment. There have been talks of sanctions, cancellation of U.S. debt obligations and even drawing up new trade policies in order to make it clear to China that the administration knows that they are responsible for the health crisis.
According to CNN, one official in the administration who wanted to remain anonymous said that the camp is trying to be careful on the steps to take since the economy may be affected. He also added that it is crucial to get the economy going again.
However, the said official stressed that the administration will find ways to show the Chinese that their actions which led to the outbreak are reprehensible.
Meanwhile, the intelligence community is under massive pressure from the administration. This is because senior officials are already pushing to find out if there is truth to the theory that the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China causing the worldwide crisis.
In connection to this, the intelligence community issued a statement saying that they are already focusing their resources on the matter, as they would during the time of any crisis. The statement also said that the IC is continuously examining the emerging information in order to determine the true origin of the outbreak.
Earlier this month, there have been reports saying that the government was already looking into the theory that pointed out that the virus came from a laboratory. However, there have been no reports that supported this yet.
In addition, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Mark Milley said that based on the evidence available, it points to the direction of the virus' natural origin.
China: "We are not the enemy"
With the news that Trump's administration is already concocting plans to punish China for the COVID-19 pandemic, the Communist Party of China responded by saying that Trump should be focusing more on battling the virus. They urged the US leader to stay keep his attention in fighting the virus, rather than finding someone to blame.
Moreover, as Trump claims that he already has evidence that the coronavirus originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, US politicians continue to criticize Beijing's response to the outbreak. However, China continues to deny the allegations and criticized Trump, saying that he is trying to shift the attention for his administration's poor handling of the epidemic.
In addition, Geng Shuang, spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry said that the US should be aware that the virus is the real enemy and not China. Furthermore, Shuang also denied the allegations that Beijing is attempting to use the pandemic to obstruct Trump's plans of reelection.
