Hardening his stand against China, US President Donald Trump on Saturday (April 18) said that Beijing will have to face consequences if it was "knowingly responsible" for the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.


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Trump has been regularly expressing his disappointment over handling of the coronavirus crisis by China, accusing the Asian nation of failing to cooperate with the US on this issue.


"If they were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences. You're talking about, you know, potentially lives like nobody's seen since 1917," President Trump told reporters at a White House news conference.


Trump added that his relationship with China was very good before the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic. "The relationship was good when we were signing that, but then, all of a sudden, you hear about this. So, it's a big difference. "You know, the question was asked would you be angry at China. Well, the answer very well might be a very resounding yes, but it depends," Trump said.


Mincing no words, President Trump noted that there was a big difference between a mistake that got out of control or something done with full knowledge.


"In either event, they should have let us go in. You know, we asked to go in very early and they didn't want us in. I think they knew it was something bad and I think they were embarrassed," Trump said.


The US president also attacked former vice president Joe Biden, who is Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for 2020 presidential election, stressing that China wants to see Biden as the new president of the US.


"If sleepy Joe Biden wins, China will own the United States," Trump said, adding, "we had the greatest economy in the world by far. China isn't even close. Go back two months. And we're going to keep it that way."


The unprecedented coronavirus outbreak as of Saturday (April 18, 2020) has now infected over 22.8 lakh people across the globe. According to the Johns Hopkins University at 10:10 PM IST, the fatal virus that was first detected in China in December 2019, has infected over 22,84,018 lives globally with more than 1,56,900 people succumbing to the virus.