Two reasons behind Trump’s campaign against China

Ad-Dustour’s Oraib Rintawi said that US President Donald Trump keeps pouring accusations on China of causing the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting that Trump called it “the Chinese virus” despite the racism it evokes and the criticism it received in and out of the US.

Rintawi said that Trump’s accusations of China include claiming that COVID-19 was “manufactured” in a Wuhan lab, or that it was leaked due to a human error, in addition to accusing Beijing of silence and denial when it should have disclosed the information it allegedly had about the virus.

The columnist said that the US president has two “interests” behind intensifying his campaign against China, regardless of the mistakes and sins that the country may have committed.

He said that the first “interest” is an electoral one, as Trump is in critical need for a scapegoat to blame for his administration’s “laughable” failure at managing the pandemic, as the US presidential elections are less than six months away.

The writer said that Trump’s second “interest” is distinguishably economic, as the US president realises that the “post-coronavirus” world will see a Chinese progress ahead of the US in the “economic match” between the two giants.

Rintawi said that the course to achieve this “economic interest” has been established years before COVID-19 through the US “isolating China” and “imposing sanctions on it”, while also urging the rest of the world to do so, starting with Europe.

Rintawi said that criticising China’s political system, totalitarianism and lack of transparency is one thing, but throwing unfounded accusations at the country to demonise it is another.