President Donald Trump said China’s novel coronavirus infection and death toll numbers appeared to be “a little bit on the light side” at a Wednesday briefing.
The commander-in-chief told reporters that he was “being nice” when he suggested that the country’s numbers may be underreported, but also cautioned that he was “not an accountant from China” when talking about exact numbers.
Trump questioned the novel coronavirus numbers coming out of China after Bloomberg reported that a classified U.S. intelligence report concluded that the country had concealed the full impact of the virus within its borders.
Three unnamed intelligence officials spoke to the news website about the report, with one claiming that it had been provided to the White House last week.
Appearing at a press briefing yesterday, President Trump said he had not received an intelligence report talking about discrepancies in China’s COVID-19 death toll and infection numbers.
“We have not received that,” he said. “But their numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side. And I’m being nice when I say that, relative to what we witnessed and what was reported.
“We discussed that within, not so much the numbers as what they did and how they’re doing, and we’re in constant communication.”
The commander-in-chief later added: “As to whether or not their numbers are accurate. I am not an accountant from China.”
National Security Adviser Robert Brien also said the administration was “not in a position” to confirm numbers released by Chinese authorities.
“There’s no way to confirm any of those numbers,’ the official added. “There’s lots of public reporting on whether the numbers are too low… we just have no way to confirm any of those numbers.”
Newsweek has contacted the Chinese embassy for comment and will update this article with any response.
Reuters reported that China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the country had been open about the spread of COVID-19 during a Thursday briefing.
“These comments by those U.S. politicians are just shameless and morally repulsive,” she reportedly said. “They should abandon such politicizing of public health issues. This is just immoral and inhuman—and will be denounced by people all around the world.”
According to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker, a total of 82,431 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in China thus far, along with more than 3,300 related deaths and 76,571 recoveries.
By comparison, the U.S. has more than 216,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.
China first made the World Health Organization aware of a “pneumonia of unknown cause” on December 31 last year, according to the WHO website.
It reported the first case of the disease after initial suppressing concerns and information about the novel coronavirus.
