Accusing Beijing of exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday the United States plans to create a global coalition to counter China.

Iran PressEurope: US President Donald Trump identifies China as the United States’ main rival and has accused President Xi Jinping of taking advantage over trade and not telling the truth over the novel coronavirus outbreak, which Trump calls the “China plague”, according to Reuters.

Pompeo, on a visit to London, lauded Prime Minister Boris Johnson for ordering a purge of Huawei gear from its 5G mobile phone network, saying it was the right decision as data could have ended up in the hands of the Chinese government.

The secretary of state cast China as an aggressor, saying it had made illegal maritime claims, bullied Himalayan countries, covered up the coronavirus outbreak, and exploited it to further its own interests in a “disgraceful” way.

“We hope we can build out a coalition that understands the threat and will work collectively to convince the Chinese Communist Party that it is not in their best interest to engage in this kind of behavior,” Pompeo told reporters alongside British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

“We want to see every nation who understands freedom and democracy…to understand this threat that the Chinese Communist Party is posing to them.”

Pompeo offered no evidence of how China had exploited the coronavirus.

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