The US Hopes China Beats The COVID-19 Outbreak And Is Ready To Help, Ned Price: It's Not About Politics or Geopolitics

JAKARTA - The United States hopes that China will be able to overcome the wave of COVID-19 infections that hit the country, be willing to provide assistance, without judging it from a political and geopolitical point of view.

Washington on Tuesday indicated it was ready to help China weather its soaring COVID-19 outbreak, warning the uncontrolled spread there might have implications for the global economy.

"We stand ready to continue to support countries around the world, including China, on this and other COVID-related health support," State Department spokesman Ned Price told a daily news briefing, reported Reuters December 21.

"For us it's not about politics, it's not about geopolitics," Price said.

Asked whether the United States had offered to provide China with a vaccine, Price said: "I'm not going to have a private discussion, but we have stated many times publicly, we are the largest donor of COVID-19 vaccines in the world."

China this month began dismantling its strict "zero-COVID" lockdown and testing policies, after protests against restrictions that have kept the virus at bay among its 1.4 billion people for three years, but at great cost to society and China.

Price reiterated Washington's stance that they want Beijing to defeat the epidemic not only for China, but for the whole world.

"We also note that what happened in China has implications for the global economy," he said.

Apart from that, Price also warned against the possibility of a new variant developing from the Chinese outbreak.

"We also know, whenever a virus spreads anywhere widely in an uncontrolled way, it has the potential to give rise to variants," he concluded.