The U.S and China rivalry, which have been existing for years, now seems to have heighten amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many have already suspected a possible “cold war” between the two superpowers as the mistrust and blame game continues to strengthen.
Tensions have already flared since the pandemic started with Washington and Beijing sniping at one another on several occasions. In the latest, China has accused the United States of “monitoring, harassing and willfully detaining” Chinese students and researchers in the country. Wang Wenbin, Foreign Minister of China, has made the remark following the denial of a bail request n California for a university teacher, Juan Tang, who has been accused of lying about her relations to China’s military and Communist party to gain access to the United States.
Wang has said that China didn’t intend to help her but refrained from making any possible statement into the matter. However, he mentioned that China wanted the US to “handle the case fairly in accordance with the law and ensure safety and legitimate rights and interests” due to Tang.
“”For some time, the US, with ideological prejudice, keeps monitoring, harassing and willfully detaining Chinese students and researchers, and making presumptions guilt against Chinese researchers,” Wang said.
“The Us actions have seriously violated the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens and severely disrupted the normal cultural and personnel exchanges between China and the US, which amounts to outright political persecution,” he said.
Tang has been held without bail since July 23 when she was arrested after she left Chinese Consulate in San Francisco to seek medical care for her asthma. She has been denied the bail by US Magistrate Judge Deborah Barnes saying she would have reason to leave the country if released.
Tang went to the United States on December 27, 2019 to work at the University of California as a visiting researcher in the Department of Radiation Oncology. The lab has now been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and Tang has been preparing to return to China, Alecandra Nagin, an assistant federal public defender said in her filing seeking bail for her.
Tang was arrested after the Justice Department accused the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco of fostering a fugitive. FBI agents questioned her on June 20 after finding her photographs in a uniform of the civilian cadre of the PLA indicating her connection to the Chinese military. However, Nagin has said that the old photographs are from the time when Tang was a student at a medical school run by military declining her links to the military.
