WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday alleged that China does not want to see him elected in polls due later this year, mainly because of the billions of dollars he has been taking from them as import tariffs.
Instead, he claimed, China wants to have former vice president Joe Biden elected as the next US president in the November elections.
Biden is the presumptive nominee of the opposition Democratic party.
"China doesn't want to see me elected and the reason is that we are getting billions and billions of dollars, many billions of dollars a month from China," Trump said, referring to the massive tariffs he has imposed on the import of Chinese products into the US.
"China never gave our country anything. Whether it was Biden in charge of China which was a joke because they ripped off our country for eight years and in all fairness to Biden and (former US President Barack) Obama, this went on long before they got into office," he said.
"I mean, you can go through many administrations until I came along and then we find a trade deal where they are supposed to buy and they have been buying a lot actually. But that now becomes secondary to what took place with the virus. The virus situation is just not acceptable," Trump said.
"I don't want to cast any aspersions; I just will tell you that China would like to see Sleepy Joe Biden. They would take this country for a ride like you've never seen before," Trump said in response to a question.
However, the opposition Democratic party slammed him on his China policy.
"Trump put his political fortunes first and our public health last. He refused to call out China on its coronavirus response and delayed taking action to mitigate the crisis out of fear of upsetting his trade deal that has gone largely unfulfilled.
Now Americans are suffering the consequences," Democratic National Committee deputy War Room director Daniel Wessel said in a statement.
"We'd say Trump is weak on China, but that's an understatement. Trump rolled over in a way that has been catastrophic for our country. He did nothing for months because he put himself and his political fortunes first.
"He refused to push China on its coronavirus response and delayed taking action to mitigate the crisis in an effort to not upset Beijing and secure a limited trade deal that has largely gone unfulfilled," Wessel said.