Coronavirus: China virus figures on light side, says Trump

Donald Trump says the coronavirus statistics China has reported seem ‘a little bit on the light side’.

‘I am not an accountant from China,’ Donald Trump said at the COVID-19 briefing. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump says coronavirus statistics China has reported seem “a little bit on the light side”, while his nat­ional security adviser said Washington had no way of knowing whether Beijing’s figures were ­accurate.

The comments came after Bloomberg News said a classified US intelligence report had concluded China had under-reported the total cases and deaths it had suffered.

The outbreak began in China last last year but Beijing has reported fewer cases and deaths than in the US, which now has the world’s largest outbreak, with 216,722 cases and 5137 deaths. China has 82,431 cases and 3322 deaths.

Mr Trump told a daily briefing by his coronavirus taskforce that he had not received an intelligence report on China’s data. “The numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side — and I am being nice when I say that — relative to what we witnessed and what was reported,” he said.

Mr Trump said he had discussed how China had dealt with the coronavirus outbreak in a phone call with President Xi Jinping last Friday, but “not so much the numbers”. “As to whether or not their numbers are accurate, I am not an accountant from China,” said Mr Trump, who has toned down his criticism of China’s handling of the outbreak since the call.

National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said Washington was “just not (in) the position to confirm any of the numbers that are coming out of China”. “There’s lots of public reporting on whether the numbers are too low. You got access to those reports that are coming out of Chinese social media … we just have no way to confirm any of those numbers.

Michael McCaul, the ranking Republican on the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, accused Beijing of hiding the true number of cases. He called for the State Department to investigate Beijing’s “initial cover-up and subsequent actions regarding this pandemic”.

Bloomberg cited US officials as saying a classified report, received by the White House last week, concluded China’s public reporting on cases and deaths was intentionally incomplete.

China reported dwindling new infections on Thursday and for the first time disclosed the number of cases of those who have the disease but show no symptoms.

Reuters