The United States said Thursday that all options were open to putting pressure on China, angered by reports that President Donald Trump was considering a broader ban on Communist Party members.
The New York Times and later The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was reviewing a proposal to deny US entry to all members of the ruling party - including politicians and businessmen in the world's most populous country.
When asked about the report on Fox News, Secretary of State Mike Pompey said that the administration was "pushing back against the Communist Party of China."
Without commenting directly, he said, "We want to make sure it reflects American tradition, and that it has a lot of ideas for review by the president and our team."
White House Press Secretary Kyle McKinney said in a brief about Trump: "He does not rule out taking any action against China."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying described the visa ban as "the strongest force in the world."
"We hope the US will stay away from the basic rules governing international relations and undermine its reputation, credibility, and status as a major country," he said.
Trump is putting increasing pressure on China, repeatedly blaming Asian power to prevent a massive coronavirus pandemic in the United States just months before the election.
The State Department said last week that it would deny visas to three senior Chinese officials about misconduct in the Xinjiang region, where rights groups have insulted more than a million Uyghur and other Ottoman Muslims.
But a broader ban on members of the Chinese Communist Party would be an extraordinary task, with U.S. officials demanding that three million Chinese who travel each year be tested before the upcoming epidemic disrupts.
Last year, more than 90 million people belonged to the party, 35 percent of whom were "workers, farmers," Chinese state media reported.
For many Chinese, membership in the 99-year-old party is seen as important to progress. Many observers in 2018 were shocked to learn that Jack, the billionaire businessman behind e-commerce titan Alibaba, belongs to our party.
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