US President Donald Trump on Monday blamed China for his administration’s failure to curb the spread of COVID-19 across the US, once again calling the disease the “China virus”, with experts and members of the public accusing him of inciting xenophobic crimes across the country.

U.S. President Donald Trump  (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

During a White House press conference on Monday, Trump urged Americans to stop politicizing the virus, but moments later blamed China for the deteriorating pandemic situation in the US, adding, “The virus came from China, it’s China’s fault.”

"We must stop politicizing the virus and instead be united in our condemnation of how this virus came to America, how this virus came to the world," Trump said.

This is not the first time that Trump has used such a radically charged term to deflect from his own failures in responding to the pandemic by blaming China. On August 8, Trump put up a post on his Twitter account, in which he called COVID-19 the “China Virus.” The comment quickly drew a public backlash, with netizens around the globe creating the hashtag “TrumpsCovidCoverup” and launching an online campaign calling for the president to stop using such racist and groundless terms.

“Trump calls it the China virus, I call it the Trump virus. China had nothing to do with what Trump did to American people,” said Maggie Schafer, a Twitter user.

The Trump administration’s smearing of China has not changed the fact that the US has the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the world, with the highest numbers of confirmed fatalities and reported cases. According to Johns Hopkins University, there were over 5 million reported COVID-19 cases and more than 163,000 confirmed deaths from the virus in the US as of Monday, making the president’s groundless accusation even more feeble and absurd.

As a public figure, Trump’s irresponsible remarks have exacerbated the already rising xenophobic behavior in the US. According to Chinese advocacy groups, between March and June, 2,100 hate crimes against Asian Americans related to COVID-19 were committed, 10 percent of which were physical.

According to a China Daily report, an 89-year-old Chinese American woman in Brooklyn, New York, was slapped in the face and then set on fire by two men. Even Asian American celebrities, including actress Min-Na Wen and model Kelly Hu have told the public about hate crimes targeting their family members and friends.

“What is the China Virus, is COVID too difficult for Trump? And to be fair, why don’t we rename it for Trump who wants to spread it everywhere in America?" said Pam Szitas, a Twitter user.