Biden says Trump failed to hold China accountable on coronavirus

By Michael Martina and Trevor Hunnicutt
April 17 (Reuters) - Americans are paying the price for
President Donald Trump's failure to hold China to account over
the coronavirus pandemic, presumed Democratic presidential
nominee Joe Biden said on Friday, as the two campaigns spar over
who can better confront challenges posed by Beijing.
Trump's campaign has moved swiftly to mine Biden's nearly
five-decade record as a senator, vice president and presidential
candidate for fodder for attacks related to China, an issue that
has emerged as a major battlefield for the campaigns ahead of
November's election.
A pro-Trump political action committee, America First
Action, on Thursday unveiled $10 million in new attack ads
against Biden in the battleground states Pennsylvania, Michigan
and Wisconsin, casting the former vice president as friendly to
China's ruling Communist Party, while highlighting Trump's
decision in January to ban travel from the country after the
coronavirus outbreak started there.
Biden's allies have welcomed the fight, arguing that Trump
undermined U.S. disease control protections and allowed the
rapid spread of the novel coronavirus that first emerged in
China but has now killed more than 35,000 people in the United
States, more than in any other country.
"The uncomfortable truth is that Donald Trump left America
exposed and vulnerable to this pandemic. He ignored the warnings
of health experts and intelligence agencies and put his trust in
China's leaders instead," Biden said in a video ad posted
online.
Biden said Trump ended funding for a program created under
the Obama-Biden administration to track emergency infectious
diseases, cut Centers of Disease Control and Prevention experts
in China by two thirds, and left empty a slot for an American
official within China's disease control agency.
"And now, we're all paying the price," he said.
Democratic political group American Bridge 21st Century
Foundation unveiled the "first wave" of a $15 million anti-Trump
advertising campaign on Friday, rolling out ads also in
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
The ads criticized Trump for his delivery of U.S. medical
supplies to help China and for praising Chinese President Xi
Jinping for transparency in handling the virus despite
widespread skepticism about the accuracy of China's reported
death toll, which now stands at about 4,600, following a
revision on Friday that added nearly 1,300 people to the
toll. "Trump trusted China, sent China our supplies, and just look
at the mess we're in now," it said.
The Trump group also established a "Beijing Biden" website
dedicated to fundraising and to chronicling Biden's past
statements as "naive" on the threats posed by the world's second
largest economy.
Trump's campaign responded to Biden's video with its own,
condemning the former vice president for objecting to Trump's
late-January order restricting non-U.S. travelers from China to
combat COVID-19.

"FLAT OUT DICTATORS"
As the coronavirus spread, Biden appears to have hardened
his tone toward China, comparing its leaders to "Jack the
Ripper" in a March Democratic debate with presidential rival
Senator Bernie Sanders, who has since dropped his White House
bid and endorsed Biden.
"These are flat out dictators. Period. And they should be
called for it, straight up," Biden said at the time.
Still, Biden may have to overcome a legacy of criticism –
some from former senior Obama administration officials – that
they were soft on Beijing, especially in not responding
forcefully to China's militarization of man-made islands in
contested waters of the South China Sea.
Biden is actively considering people who would fill key
posts, including those related to China and foreign policy, if
he is elected president.
He told donors at a fundraiser Thursday night that there are
hundreds of former officials with experience in the Defense
Department and State Department, "including some Republicans"
whom he would considering bringing back.