China has responded to President Donald Trump’s recent threat to cut ties with Beijing, warning that the move “will only hurt American citizens.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily press briefing in Beijing on Friday that a decision to arbitrarily decouple from China would not be realistic or wise, after Trump renewed his threat to sever relations with China.
On Thursday, Trump said Washington could pursue a “complete decoupling from” Beijing.
Trump’s threat came a day after US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Congress that he did not think severing bilateral trade ties was a viable option. His threat also came a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi, amid uncertainty over whether a trade pact between the two nations will remain intact.
The world’s two largest economies have been at odds over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the past months. The new coronavirus, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, first erupted in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year before growing into a global pandemic.