The coronavirus crisis continues to increase diplomatic tension between China and the United States. The latest move on the matter has been a statement by Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who has pointed out that the United States should ban Chinese students from studying science and technology in the country.
The United States has already accused China of being the country responsible for the coronavirus epidemic that is ravaging the world and now Cotton has launched a new attack on the Asian giant, pointing out that there was “little doubt” that China wants to rob the COVID-19 vaccine from the U.S.
"If Chinese students want to come here and study Shakespeare & the Federalist Papers, that's what they need to learn from America. They don't need to learn quantum computing" — Sen. Tom Cotton proposes restricting Chinese students from studying science & tech at US universities pic.twitter.com/Sn6f6MMwtW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 26, 2020
While accusing the communist nation, Cotton indicated that it is a “scandal” that the brightest minds in China were trained by the United States. “If Chinese students want to come here and study Shakespeare and ‘The Federalist Papers’ (collection of essays promoting ratification of the United States Constitution), that’s what they need to learn from the United States. They don’t need to learn quantum computing.”
Cotton’s attacks did not stop here. The Republican senator from Arkansas has claimed that China had designed a “weapon” against the American people and Chinese citizens were stealing jobs in the United States, so visas given to Chinese students, especially those who come to graduate studies, had to be reconsidered.
“The Chinese intelligence services are actively trying to steal the intellectual property of the United States when it comes to the virus they released to the world, because, of course, they want to be the country that takes credit for finding the drugs or the vaccine, and then use it as influence against the rest of the world,” explained the senator in a televised interview.
An open war?
U.S. President Donald Trump has already referred to China as the main responsible for the COVID-19, noting: “We were attacked. This was an attack. By the way, this wasn’t just the flu. No one has seen anything like this, 1917 was the last time,” accusing China of biological warfare.
China, for its part, has criticized the lawsuits brought against it by several US states, which argued that Chinese officials were to blame for the coronavirus pandemic. However, China Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang was categorical: “These so-called lawsuits are very absurd and have no legal basis. Since the outbreak began, China has acted openly, transparently and responsibly, and the U.S. government should dismiss such vexatious litigation.”