Donald Trump casts doubt on Chinese coronavirus figures

President Donald Trump cast doubt on the accuracy of official Chinese figures on its coronavirus outbreak after US lawmakers, citing an intelligence report, accused Beijing of a cover-up.

“How do we know” if they are accurate, Trump asked at a press conference. “Their numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side.”

Trump insisted that “the relationship with China’s a good one” and that he remained close to President Xi Jinping.

However, the controversy around Beijing’s transparency has strained ties, adding to bad feelings triggered by a conspiracy theory in China that the US military was to blame for the virus.

Republicans in Congress, pointing to a report by Bloomberg citing US intelligence, expressed outrage that Beijing apparently misled the international community on China’s infections and deaths that began in late 2019 in the city of Wuhan.

China’s reporting has been intentionally incomplete, with some intelligence officials describing Beijing’s numbers as fake, reported Bloomberg, which highlighted the classified intelligence document sent to the White House last week.

China has publicly reported 82,394 confirmed cases and 3,316 deaths as of Thursday, according to a rolling tracker by Johns Hopkins University.

That compares to 216,722 cases and 5.137 deaths in the United States, the country with the world’s largest reported outbreak.

Asked about the report at a press briefing on Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying didn’t directly address it or Trump’s comments, but said that “to slander, to discredit, to blame others or to shift responsibility cannot make up the time that has been lost.”

Receive news alert via Whatsapp from The Forefront Media Org, send a message to +2348124620827

MAKE MONEY AS YOU RECHARGE, SUBSCRIBE FOR CABLE AND NETWORK. JOIN RECHARGE AND GET PAID NOW.

WHEN ON WEB VIEW, SEE OUR TOP LEFT AND RIGHT SIDE BAR FOR LIVE STREAM NEWS CHANNELS (GLOBAL AND NIGERIAN)

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK  

> facebook Global audience 

> facebook Nigerian audience  

FOLLOW US ON:

> The Forefront on Twitter

>{Instagram: the_forefront_nigeria }

Connect with Joshua Osagie (Blog owner)

 >  facebook personal account 

 > facebook  (fan page) 

 > twitter

Share this post now with others on social media.