MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump again blames China for the pandemic, and is thinking “in ways to hold Beijing accountable”

“We're doing very serious investigations... We are not happy with China,” Trump said. “There are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable”

US President Donald Trump said that China could have stopped the coronavirus before it swept the globe and said his administration was conducting “serious investigations” into what happened.

“We're doing very serious investigations ... We are not happy with China,” Trump said at a White House news conference. “There are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable.

”We believe it could have been stopped at the source. It could have been stopped quickly and it wouldn't have spread all over the world.“

Trump's criticism was the latest from his administration to target China's handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, which began late last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has grown into a global pandemic.

The US president said he may seek damages from China. Trump was asked about a recent German newspaper editorial which called on China to pay Germany US$165 billion in reparations because of economic damage done by the virus

Asked if the US would consider doing the same, the US president said ”we can do something much easier than that“.

”Germany is looking at things, we are looking at things,“ he said. ”We are talking about a lot more money than Germany's talking about. We haven't determined the final amount yet,“ Trump said. It's very substantial.

”This is worldwide damage,“ he said. ”This is damage to the US, but this is damage to the world.“

Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US ”strongly believed“ Beijing failed to report the outbreak in a timely manner and covered up how dangerous the respiratory illness caused by the virus was.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Twitter Pompeo should ”stop playing the political game. Better save energy on saving lives“.

Earlier on Monday, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro accused China of sending low-quality and even counterfeit coronavirus antibody testing kits to the United States and of ”profiteering” from the pandemic.

Navarro, an outspoken critic of Beijing whom Trump has appointed to work on supply-line issues relating to the health crisis, said more testing both for the virus and antibodies was vital to getting Americans currently in lockdown back to work.