Chinese Communist Party (CCP) newspaper Global Times hit back at US President Donald Trump's moves to cut ties with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and end the country's preferential treatment for Hong Kong, calling them "extreme and suicidal".
The nationalist tabloid, which is owned by the CCP's official People's Daily, said in an editorial shortly after the US leader's press conference that Mr Trump was trying to distract Americans from his "incompetence" in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
"The United States is moving against the tide of history. By withdrawing and imposing sanctions, they are only making themselves sicker and weaker. This set of extreme tactics are tantamount to committing chronic suicide as a superpower," said the editorial yesterday.
Mr Trump's announcement on Hong Kong, made on Friday in Washington, will mean that the city, which is currently treated separately from mainland China in matters of trade and commerce, will be subject to US tariffs on Chinese goods as part of the ongoing trade war.
It comes just two days after China's Parliament, the National People's Congress, passed a resolution to enact national security laws in Hong Kong.
Critics fear the laws would undermine the city's autonomy, which operates under the "one country, two systems" framework, and pave the way for Chinese security agencies to operate openly in the territory.
The Global Times said Washington's move would ultimately harm itself. "The US may need to calculate its loss first. Hong Kong is a contributor of tens of billions of US trade surplus each year and the city is closely connected with the interests of many big American companies," it said.
Mr Trump has attacked Beijing's handling of the outbreak, referring to Covid-19 as a "Chinese virus".
On Friday, he repeated accusations that the WHO was beholden to Beijing, adding that the US would be terminating its relationship with the organisation.
Washington is the largest contributor to the WHO - making up about 15 per cent of its total funding.
Chinese experts said Mr Trump's announcements were a political gambit to shift blame to China, and said they did not expect a major official reaction from Beijing.
Dr Wang Huiyao, president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, said Mr Trump's decision to withdraw from the WHO was "unproductive and damaging".
"This is a time (when) developing and developed countries are suffering and we need a strong WHO to act. The organisation might need improvements but totally withdrawing is not the approach to take," he said.
Professor Zhu Feng, director of Nanjing University's Institute of International Studies, said that while Chinese leaders stressed the need for both sides to cooperate over the past week, this was not possible if Mr Trump continues to take such a hardline stance.
"I think there is no chance that China-US relations will get better before the US elections in November. Trump is completely unreasonable, he is just guided by his own domestic political interests," he said.