Trump announces measures against China over COVID-19 response and Hong Kong security law

The US-China ties have reached a new low as US President Donald Trump has announced a slew of measures against China which includes suspending visas of thousands of Chinese graduate students enrolled at US universities and deporting them, imposing other sanctions against Chinese officials, cancelling the special trade exemptions given to Hong Kong.

The decisions have been taken in view of China imposing the new security law in Hong Kong snatching the human rights and freedom of the citizens in Hong Kong, China's discreet way of handling the COVID-19 crisis and not alarming the world about the severity of the crisis and its alleged involvement in espionage and intellectual property theft by way of students enrolment in US universities.

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'They stopped it from going to China, but not the world'

"China's cover-up of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has claimed over 100,000 American lives and infected over a million lives worldwide. Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to WHO," Trump said.

Speaking of China's inability to stop the virus from spreading in the world when they were able to stop it from spreading in other parts of China, Trump said, "I don't know if it was incompetence or it was done for some other reason, they stopped it from going to China, but they didn't stop it from going to the rest of the world. So nobody likes that. That was not good."

He also announced that the US is terminating its relationship with the World Health Organisation (WHO) saying it had failed to adequately respond to the coronavirus because China has “total control” over the global organization. Trump said that he would be redirecting the money to “other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs"

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With regards to the Chinese parliament imposing the new security law on Hong Kong, Trump said, "The Chinese government's move against Hong Kong is the latest in a series of measures that are diminishing the city's long-standing and very proud status. This is a tragedy for the people of Hong Kong, people of China, and indeed the people of the world."

"China has replaced its promise of one country, two systems with one country, one system. Therefore, I am directing my administration to begin the process of eliminating policy exemptions that give Hong Kong different and special treatment," he further said.

(With inputs from agencies)