United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he believes China’s handling of the coronavirus is proof that Beijing “will do anything they can” to make him lose the upcoming elections in November. In an interview with Reuters, Trump criticised China and said the country should have been more “active” in letting the world know about the coronavirus much sooner.

“China will do anything they can to have me lose this race,” he said. Trump said he believes Beijing wants his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, to win the race to ease the pressure Trump has placed on China over trade and other issues. “They’re constantly using public relations to try to make it like they’re innocent parties,” he added.

Trump said he was looking at different options in terms of consequences for China over the virus. “I can do a lot,” he said.

Trump said the trade deal he had concluded with Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at reducing chronic US trade deficits with China had been “upset very badly” by the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

Hitting back at Trump, China said it has no interest in interfering in the American presidential elections. “The US presidential election is an internal affair, we have no interest in interfering in it,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, according to Reuters. “We hope the people of the US will not drag China into its election politics.”

The US president has been repeatedly accused of not doing enough or acting in time to prepare the United States for the outbreak. However, Trump said he did not expect the election to be a referendum on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

He also expressed surprise that Biden was doing well in the opinion polls. “I don’t believe the polls,” Trump said. “I believe the people of this country are smart. And I don’t think that they will put a man in who’s incompetent.”

For weeks, Trump has blamed China for the global pandemic that has killed people nearly 61,000 people in the US according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and thrown the economy into a deep recession.

On Tuesday, he had said he wants to conduct “serious investigations” into China’s handling of the pandemic. “We’re doing very serious investigations ... We are not happy with China,” Trump said. “There are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable.”

Trump had previously referred to Covid-19 as the “Chinese virus”, for which he has received severe backlash.

Meanwhile, Trump on Wednesday called the World Health Organization “literally a pipe organ for China” and said the United States will soon come out with its recommendations on the global body, followed by one on Beijing, PTI reported.

“They misled us,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office. “We will have a recommendation pretty soon but we are not happy with the World Health Organization.”

Trump recently launched an investigation into the WHO’s role in the spread of the coronavirus and have accused the organisation of siding with China. The investigation would look into the role of China and as to how coronavirus spread from its Wuhan city.

Covid-19 has infected 31.92 lakh people and caused 2.27 lakh deaths across 185 countries or regions, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.