Criticism of the World Trade Organization by Donald Trump has been "damaging", said the body’s chief, Roberto Azevêdo, conceding that its rules need to be updated. The U.S. president has argued that the WTO is too soft on China. In retaliation, Washington undermined the organization’s highest dispute-resolution forum, the Appellate Body, by blocking the nomination…
(BEIJING) — Beijing will honor its trade deal with the U.S. and wants to see better ties with Washington, senior Chinese officials said Thursday. Zhu Guangyao, a former finance minister and Cabinet adviser, said the two countries should “waste no time” in improving relations to help better coordinate a response to the coronavirus pandemic. He…
China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is akin to the Soviet Union’s response to Chernobyl, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien said Sunday. "The cover-up that they did of the virus is going to go down in history along with Chernobyl," O’Brien told Chuck Todd on NBC’s "Meet the Press," referring to the…
A top GOP lawmaker tapped to lead a House panel scrutinizing China disclosed his family’s investment in a major Chinese tech company linked to surveillance and censorship, according to a congressional form filed in his name. A periodic transaction report filed on April 20 in the name of Rep. Michael McCaul, who represents Texas’ 10th…
Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair has a message for President Donald Trump and other Western leaders as they grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking at a POLITICO online event on Wednesday, Blair urged governments to resist the pull of nationalism amid the crisis, calling the current debates between “globalizers and non-globalizers” a distraction…
China’s behavior during the coronavirus pandemic will help to "sharpen opinion" in the U.K. toward its security ties with Beijing, the chairman of the United Kingdom’s parliamentary defense committee said. The U.K. government is undergoing a "mindset change" with regard to Beijing "not least because of the attitude, the conduct of China throughout Covid-19," said…
On Fox News Sunday, Donald Trump promised his administration was putting together a comprehensive report on the coronavirus that clearly has a foregone conclusion: It’s all China’s fault. “We’re going to be giving a very strong report as to exactly what we think happened,” Trump said during a virtual town hall. “And I think it…
An EU report about Chinese and Russian disinformation on coronavirus was watered down after pressure from Beijing. Three people confirmed to POLITICO that Chinese diplomats exerted pressure on the EU to change the wording of the report, details of which were first reported in Brussels Playbook on Tuesday. The report — on "narratives and disinformation"…
President Donald Trump yanked U.S. funding for the World Health Organization on Tuesday, complaining that the United Nations public health agency was overly deferential to China and had put too much faith in Beijing’s assertions that it had the coronavirus outbreak there was under control. “Had the W.H.O. done its job to get medical experts…
This story is being published by POLITICO as part of a content partnership with the South China Morning Post. It originally appeared on scmp.com on April 9, 2020. China has asked Switzerland to provide more components for ventilators as domestic producers face an “impossible” task of expanding supply to meet global demand. While demand for…