The Trump administration has repeatedly attacked Beijing over its alleged mishandling of the coronavirus crisis, with the president calling it the “China virus” and the “kung flu” and even suggesting that the People’s Republic may have “intentionally” spread the disease across the globe.
China’s ambassador to the United Nations has hit back at Washington over US Ambassador Kelly Craft’s remarks accusing China of failing to work ‘in good faith’ with the international community to defeat COVID-19 and prevent the emergence of new pandemics.
“Enough is enough,” Ambassador Zhang Jun said, speaking at a virtual UN Security Council meeting on Thursday.
Rejecting the “baseless” claims about China’s alleged responsibility for the pandemic and calling Washington “completely isolated” from the international community with its millions of COVID-19 cases and 200,000+ deaths, Zhang asked why, “with the most advanced medical technologies and system in the world,” the US “turned out to have the most confirmed cases and fatalities?”
“If someone should be held accountable, it should be a few US politicians themselves,” the Chinese diplomat added, presumably referring to comments made by US President Donald Trump on Tuesday at his speech to the General Assembly that China should be “held accountable” for failing to halt air travel in the pandemic’s early days to “infect the world” with the “plague.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the 75th annual U.N. General Assembly, which is being held mostly virtually due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., September 22, 2020.
Urging the US to “wake up,” Zhang suggested that it’s time for “a major power” like America to actually “behave like a major power”, and join other major countries in shouldering “special responsibilities” in response to the virus.
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia joined Zhang in his criticism of Craft, saying Russia regrets “the fact that the representative of the United States chose this meeting and the platform of the Security Council to make unfounded accusations against one of the members of the Security Council”.
Portraits of former United Nations Secretary-Generals are seen in the empty arrivals hall at U.N. headquarters during the 75th annual U.N. General Assembly high level debate, which is being held mostly virtually due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in New York, U.S., September 22, 2020.
UN Chief Slams Security Council Amid Bickering
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres blasted the Security Council over the infighting, suggesting that it was a “lack of global preparedness, cooperation, unity and solidarity” which caused the virus to spread around the world in the first place.
US officials have repeatedly attacked China and its ruling Communist Party for their alleged mishandling of the coronavirus crisis, with the pandemic becoming one of half-a-dozen major areas of dispute between the economic superpowers amid tensions over trade, technology transfer, the South China Sea, Hong Kong, and alleged mistreatment of Uyghur peoples in Xinjiang.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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