US President Donald Trump has signalled a further deterioration of his relationship with China over the coronavirus outbreak, saying he has no interest in speaking to President Xi Jinping right now and going so far as to suggest he could even cut ties with the world's second-largest economy.
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In an interview with Fox Business Network broadcast on Thursday, Trump said he was very disappointed with China's failure to contain the disease and that the pandemic had cast a pall over his January trade deal with Beijing, which he has previously hailed as a major achievement.
"They should have never let this happen," Trump said. "So I make a great trade deal and now I say this doesn't feel the same to me. The ink was barely dry and the plague came over. And it doesn't feel the same to me."
Trump's pique extended to Xi, with whom the US president has said repeatedly he has a good relationship.
"But I just - right now I don't want to speak to him," Trump said in the interview, which was taped on Wednesday.
Trump was asked about a Republican senator's suggestion that US visas be denied to Chinese students applying to study in fields related to national security, such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
"There are many things we could do. We could do things. We could cut off the whole relationship," he replied.
"Now, if you did, what would happen? You'd save $US500 billion," Trump said, referring to estimated US annual imports from China, which he often refers to as lost money.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing on Friday that maintaining a steady bilateral relationship served the interests of both peoples and would be beneficial for world peace and stability.
"Both China and the US should now be co-operating more on fighting the virus together, to cure patients and resume economic production, but this requires the US to want to work with us on this," Zhao said.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox Business Network China needed to provide a lot more information about the coronavirus and Trump was reviewing his options.
Trump and his Republican backers have accused Beijing of failing to alert the world to the severity and scope of the coronavirus outbreak and of withholding data about the earliest cases. The pandemic has sparked a sharp global recession and threatened Trump's November re-election chances.
The United States has been hardest hit by the pandemic, according to official data.
China insists it has been transparent and, amid increasingly bitter exchanges, both sides have questioned the future of the trade deal.
Australian Associated Press
