TIRANA – The COVID-19 epidemic is the common enemy of China and the Unites States, and it is the shared wish of both peoples to support and help each other, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Sunday as quoted by Xinhua news agency.
China and the United States should share experience of epidemic fight and learn from each other to boost their respective responses, Wang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual national legislative session.
Both countries should follow the expectations of the global society to participate in and promote multilateral cooperation against COVID-19 and play a positive role in the global response, Wang said.
“As we are getting prepared for a long-term and regular fight against the disease, the two countries should start as early as possible to coordinate and communicate over macro-policies to mitigate the impact of the disease on both economies and the world economy,” he said.
Wang expressed his deep sympathies to the United States for the pandemic, where the death toll is expected to surpass 100,000 in the coming days, the highest number of any country, reported Reuters on Sunday.
“Regretfully, in addition to the raging coronavirus, a political virus is also spreading in the United States. This political virus is using every opportunity to attack and smear China,” said Wang. “Some politicians have ignored the most basic facts and concocted too many lies about China and plotted too many conspiracies,” he added. “I want to say here: Don’t waste precious time any longer, and don’t ignore lives,” Wang said.
Last month, Missouri became the first US state to sue the Chinese government over its handling of the coronavirus, saying China’s response to the outbreak that originated in the city of Wuhan brought devastating economic losses to the state.
Wang said such lawsuits lacked any legal basis. “The China of today is not the China of a century ago, and nor is the world,” he added. “If you want to infringe upon China’s sovereignty and dignity with indiscriminate litigation, and extort the fruits of the hard work of the Chinese people, I am afraid this is a daydream and you’ll only humiliate yourself.”
Chinese FM also offered his strong support for the World Health Organization (WHO) and its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, frequent targets of US criticism. “To support the WHO is to support saving lives. This is the choice any country with a conscience should make,” he said.
Trump, who has accused the agency of being “China centric”, has threatened to permanently halt funding to the WHO and to reconsider his country’s membership of the agency. (Compiled from wires-argumentum.al)
