New Delhi: The coronavirus pandemic seems to have escalated the tension between America and China and Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to break all ties with China. According to a report by Reuters, in an interview with Fox Business News, Trump said that he is no longer interested in speaking to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and that America is disappointed by the way the coronavirus pandemic was handled by China.

According to him, China should never have let the pandemic happen. He said that they had just signed a trade deal and now it does not ‘feel same’ to him. Trump said that there were many ways for America to deal with the situation and one of them could be to cut off its relationship with China.

“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 $500 billion,” Trump has said in the Reuters report referring to the annual imports from China.

According to a report by PTI, Trump also confirmed that his administration has asked for the withdrawal of billions of dollars in American pension fund investments in China. He added that other similar actions are under consideration.

"Billions of dollars, billions... Yeah, I pulled it back," Trump said in the interview about American pension fund investments.

The president was also asked whether Chinese companies will be made to follow all conditions for being listed at the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. At present Chinese companies like Alibaba are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but they don’t have to report earnings.  --

"We are looking at that very strongly. It's pretty amazing but here's the problem with that. Let's say we do that, right? So what are they going to do? They are going to move their listing to London or someplace else. You see? Let us say you want to get tough. You know everyone wants to be a tough guy. Look I am the toughest guy but what happens is they say 'okay, we will move to London or we will go to Hong Kong’, “Trump said in the report.

The Chinese government has criticised Trump’s statement and according to the reports is thinking of taking action against US lawmakers who have introduced legislation in the Senate proposing sanctions against China for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

"The Chinese government is lashing out at those who are appropriately trying to hold them accountable for intentionally misleading us about the nature of the novel coronavirus, where it was spreading and how quickly things were getting out of control. I consider their threats a badge of honour, Congressman Jim Banks said.

America has also accused China of stealing Intellectual Property and research work.