In this file photo taken on June 29, 201, China�s President Xi Jinping (R) greets US President Donald Trump before a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan.

US is strategically dependent on China for over 400 categories of imports, of which more than 100 service America�s critical infrastructure, posing a threat to US national security, a new report by a British think tank shows.

The US is strategically dependent on China for antibiotics, essential batteries, rare earth metals, critical elements, laptops, cell phones, vitamin supplements and even things like shipping containers, safety glass and life jackets, according to the Asia Studies Center at the Henry Jackson Society in London.

According to the report, strategic dependency is defined when a country is a net importer of a particular good; it imports more than 50 percent of its supplies from China, and China controls more than 30 percent of the global market of that particular good.

To end America�s strategic dependency requires a decoupling of the US and Chinese economy and the forming of new partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region, said Matthew Henderson, director of the Asia Studies Center.

Henderson said the coronavirus pandemic has made clear for the US the dangers of this dependence.

The report found that not only the US but also Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the so-called five eyes intelligence-sharing partners, are all strategically dependent on China in a total of 831 categories of goods, and that unless change happens soon, it could be too late.

Ties between the US and China have plunged since the outbreak of the coronavirus, with the administrations of President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping repeatedly accusing each other of worsening the health crisis.

Washington and Beijing have also clashed over trade, human rights, the South China Sea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The Chinese government�s top diplomat Wang Yi said on Sunday the United States should work with China to combat the Covid-19 outbreak, and stop wasting time and spreading conspiracies and lies against Beijing.

Regretfully, in addition to the raging coronavirus, a political virus is also spreading in the United States. This political virus is using every opportunity to attack and smear China, said Wang, who is also China�s foreign minister.

Some politicians have ignored the most basic facts and concocted too many lies about China and plotted too many conspiracies, he added. I want to say here: Don�t waste precious time any longer, and don�t ignore lives.

Confirmed coronavirus infections in the US has passed 1.6 million, the highest in the world, while forecast models for possible COVID-19 deaths predict the death toll will exceed 100,000 by June 1.

SOURCE: PRESS TV