US President Donald Trump has stressed that he does not wish to speak "at the moment" to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, saying that Beijing's stance during the outbreak of the new Corona Virus outbreak had "disappointed".
When asked about the retaliatory measures he might take, he evaded the answer, but said, "There are many things we can do. We can cut off every relationship" with China.
"If we do that, what will happen? We will save 500 billion dollars if we cut all ties" with China, he asked.
For weeks, the US president has accused the Chinese authorities of hiding the scale of the epidemic that appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, central China, by facilitating its outbreak.
Beijing denies the matter and asserts that it has sent all information as quickly as possible to the World Health Organization and other countries, including the United States.
Trump assured "Fox Business" that the Chinese "could have stopped" the epidemic.
Chinese Vice Prime Minister Luo He, who led his country's delegation during trade negotiations with Washington, had a telephone conversation Friday with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin, confirming that both sides agreed to implement the first stage of the agreement.
Under the agreement, the Trump administration agreed to postpone the imposition of any further increase in customs duties, while China pledged to increase its purchases of US products over two years by $ 200 billion compared to the level it was in 2017.
The Chinese state-controlled Global Times, on Monday, said, "There have been voices emerging in China calling for a review of the trade agreement with the United States," adding that "there are calls" for new talks.
The newspaper quoted "sources close to the Chinese government" as saying that "hawks within the government have begun to seek a reassessment of the first-stage trade agreement with the United States, with some advisers urging new talks."
The newspaper said its sources close to the talks indicated that "Chinese officials are reviving the possibility of nullifying the trade agreement and negotiating new ones to tilt the scales to the Chinese side."
The US President criticized China's way of dealing with the recent outbreak of the Corona virus, to the point of threatening to impose new punitive duties on Beijing.