A Chinese diplomat accused the United States of undermining the world economy by raising trade barriers and artificially prolonging the global coronavirus pandemic by suspending funding from the World Health Organization (WHO).
China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna, Wang Qun, made these unusually harsh statements at a meeting with members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), based in the Austrian capital.
United States President Donald Trump pointed Thursday to further deterioration in relations with China due to the outbreak of the virus, stating that he has no interest in speaking now with his counterpart, Xi Jinping, and even hinting that he could cut even ties to the world’s second-largest economy.
Wang thanked OPEC for its efforts to stabilize world oil markets but later devoted most of his words to the pulse with Washington.
“The United States has done everything possible to engage in blame games and stigmatization with China and the WHO, to change its own responsibility for its ineffective control of the pandemic (in its territory),” Wang said Thursday, according to published quotes on Friday.
“Acts like those of the United States not only hamper and undermine international and cooperative efforts against the pandemic, but also actually prolong it and subsequently paralyze the world economy, leading to an outbreak of systemic risks in some countries in the payment of debt and in the financial system,” he said.
Wang also claimed that Washington is jeopardizing the global economic recovery by imposing arbitrary tariffs, causing friction and trade disputes.
He also accused Washington of exacerbating humanitarian crises in countries like Iran and Venezuela with “new far-reaching extraterritorial sanctions,” which are also distorting the global supply of crude and further destabilizing the Middle East.
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