China threatens ‘cold war’ with US

“There is also a political virus spreading through the United States,” China’s foreign minister said.

By Aaron Sull, World Israel News

A new cold war may be coming if U.S. relations with China continue to break down, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned on Sunday.

“It has come to our attention that some political forces in the United States are taking relations hostage and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new cold war,” Yi told reporters at the annual National People’s Congress meetings in Beijing.

Relations between China and the U.S. have deteriorated in recent weeks ever since President Donald Trump began blaming China for covering up the coronavirus threat before it broke out globally.

“Aside from the devastation caused by the novel coronavirus, there is also a political virus spreading through the United States,” Yi said.

“This political virus is the use of every opportunity to attack and smear China. Some politicians completely disregard basic facts and have fabricated too many lies targeting China and plotted too many conspiracies,” he added.

U.S. lawmakers have advanced several pieces of legislation to punish China for its alleged coronavirus cover-up. One of the bills passed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday would delist all Chinese companies from trading on Wall Street if they refuse to comply with beefed-up U.S. accounting disclosure regulations.

According to Fox News, fraudulent listings of Chinese companies on U.S. stock exchange markets have cost investors billions of dollars over the past decade.

“China has no intention to change,” Yi said. “It’s time for the United States to give up its wishful thinking of changing China and stopping 1.4 billion people in their historic march toward modernization.”

China’s proposal on Friday to impose harsh security measures on Hong Kong in order to quash dissent has further harmed relations between the two superpowers.

In response, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo bashed China for stripping bare Hong Kong’s Democratic institutions.

“Hong Kong has flourished as a bastion of liberty,” Pompeo said in a statement on Friday.

“The United States strongly urges Beijing to reconsider its disastrous proposal, abide by its international obligations, and respect Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy, democratic institutions and civil liberties, which are key to preserving its special status under U.S. law,” he said