Editor's note: Dong Yue is an international news editor based in Beijing. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The United States is sick. Its sickness is reflected in not only the out-of-control coronavirus epidemic in the country but also the way the government is handling it.

Facing such a nationwide crisis, a healthy and normal government would look for the root of the matter without hesitation and immediately develop detailed policies to solve the problem. However, the U.S. government tries another way: believing the solution to curbing the epidemic is beyond the country's borders. In its mind, blaming China is a remedy to its own sickness.

On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted, "China is on a massive disinformation campaign because they are desperate to have sleepy Joe Biden win the presidential race so they can continue to rip-off the United States, as they have done for decades, until I came along!"

The U.S. president, his administration and some politicians have been ramping up their baseless criticism of China since the beginning of the pandemic.

When China was still endeavoring to protect its people from the virus, the U.S. blamed China for hiding the truth and labeled the virus as "Wuhan virus," regardless of the fact that China had sounded the alarm and shared the critical information about the virus in early January.

When China successfully brought the outbreak under control in only two months, the U.S. groundlessly claimed that the virus was leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan and even demanded compensation from China, without taking any systematic or serious measures to contain the epidemic in the U.S.

When China shared its experience of fighting the virus with other countries via some international organizations, including the WHO and won global appreciation, the U.S. blamed it for expanding political influence and manipulating the organizations.

Is blaming China a remedy to the epidemic in the U.S.? Certainly not.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has surpassed 1.5 million with over 90,000 deaths, which was described by Trump as a "badge of honor."

Blaming China is just a tool for the U.S. politicians to achieve their own goals.

The first goal is to cover up the U.S. government's failure to control the virus outbreak inside the country. The government is trying to convince the U.S. citizens that it's China's mistake that lead to the rapid spread of the epidemic in the U.S.

The failure to control the outbreak in the U.S. has generated tremendous pressure on its economy, which in turn creates enormous stress on the U.S. administration.

Fabricating stories against China and shifting blames help the politicians mitigate the pressure the government is facing and distract people's attention from domestic problems.

The second one is to serve the upcoming election campaigns. China has always been a hot topic in the U.S. election campaigns. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the heat of the topic rises further.

With manipulation by some U.S. politicians, the hostility toward China among the U.S. civil society has increased, especially after the U.S. became the hardest-hit country in the pandemic.

Both the two major camps in the U.S. elections have the incentive to blame China in order to pander the misled voters.

The third one is to take the opportunity to contain China. The swift response to the virus outbreak, the responsible attitude toward the mankind as well as the genuine aid to other countries have changed, to some extent, some biased opinions over China, which the U.S. does not want.

By blaming China, the U.S. is trying to keep its global influence. However, its self-proclaimed image of a responsible country is inevitably eroding, because it can choose what it says, but cannot change the facts on the ground.

Don't look for remedies abroad. The true cure to the U.S.'s sickness is inside the country.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)