Accusations against China continue, but Trump does not want to spoil his personal relations with the Chinese president, so he tries not to criticize President Xi Jinping directly. Moreover, some of Trump's business friends warn that opposing China could harm the US stock market, but Trump has political reasons why he is targeting China.
With the general elections in the US just six months away, and the world economy is in ruins because of the global quarantine, one of Trump's steps to succeed is to debar China of its power. Thus, efforts are now underway to attract foreign allies against the country.
Aside from the discussions of imposing additional tariffs on Chinese goods, which would deprive China of its sovereign immunity and further suppress Chinese telecommunications companies, the White House added its accusations against China on withholding information on the coronavirus, even though the disease was first discovered in 1960, and has been successfully treated in any of its mutational forms in 2003.
Among those urging the scheme is Jared Kushner, Trump's main adviser and son-in-law, who believes that one of the ways to step up Trump's political base is to destroy China.
Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin, who is known to advocate closer economic ties with Beijing, has also begun to take a tougher stance. However, Mnuchin does not want to take any action that could damage Trump's original trade agreement with China last year. Thus, all trade discussions are trying to separate from the current political tensions.
Meanwhile, a Pew research survey conducted last month revealed that two-thirds of Americans have an unfavorable view of China, which was backed up by an internal poll conducted by the Republican National Committee, which also showed similar negative views from voters in several key states.
At the moment, Donald Trump is advocating the lifting of quarantine and re-opening of US economies.
"There is no great victory in sitting idle at home, but I will tell you where the victory is. We are going to build a country, which I did once, where two months ago, we had the best economy in the history of the world. We are going to do it again, and this is what we are starting... it will happen pretty fast," Trump said on May 5.
