Trump Says He Won't Talk to Xi, Calls WHO 'China's Puppet' in Continued Blame on Country for Virus

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said of late he has not spoken with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and has no plans to do so.

"No, I have not spoken to him, one. No, I do not. I have no plan to speak to them," Trump told reporters at a White House press conference. He expressed anger over China's inability to prevent the spread of the coronavirus out of the country, from where it originated.

"Make no mistake, we hold China fully responsible for concealing the virus and unleashing it upon the world. Could have stopped it, they should have stopped," Trump said as he also lashed out at the World Health Organization (WHO) for siding with China on this issue. "They were really a puppet of China," he said.

Trump also slammed former vice president Joe Biden, who is his Democratic challenger in the November presidential polls, for being "soft" on China. "By contrast, my administration acted very early to ban travel from China, from Europe, saving all of these lives. Incredible. And I want everyone to know, I want every citizen to know that we are using the full power of the federal government to fight that China virus and keep our people safe. Through Operation Warp Speed, we will deliver a vaccine in record-breaking time," he said.

"He (Biden) said the idea that China is our competition is really bizarre. He is really bizarre. He said China is not a problem. No. Nobody has ripped us off more than China over the last 25, 30 years, nobody close, and he says China is not a problem. Now he takes it all back. Now he wants to be mister tough guy. But for years, 47 years, he never came out against China, never said anything bad, just the opposite," the president said.

He said Biden expresses more fawning praise about China on an ordinary day than about America. "On July 4, Biden attacked the United States and said we had never lived up to the ideals of our fathers, our forefathers or our founding fathers, those founding ideals, and yet he enthusiastically stated that China is a great nation and we should hope for its continued expansion. Well, we all wish well to China, but what China has unleashed on the world, it is hard to even fathom.

"Biden sides with China over America time and time again. And he said on July 4 that American history is no fairy tale, and yet blindly celebrates China, saying few nations in history have come so far, so fast. He is so proud of them. He is so proud of them. Now Joe Biden is pushing a platform that would demolish the US economy, totally demolish it," Trump said.