China, United States "on the brink of a new Cold War," Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned on Sunday May 24, deploring renewed tensions with Washington over the Covid-19 epidemic .
Read also: Beijing "ready" for international cooperation on the origin of the virus
The first patients with the new coronavirus were reported at the end of last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan (center). It has since spread across the planet and killed some 340,000 people. Donald Trump has regularly accused the Chinese authorities in recent weeks of having failed to communicate crucial data on the severity of the virus, which he believes could have been halted.
"In addition to the devastation caused by the new coronavirus, a political virus is spreading in the United States" regretted in front of the press the head of the Chinese diplomacy, without naming the American president. "This political virus seizes every opportunity to attack and defame China," lambasted Wang.
Beijing and Washington were already at loggerheads for two years and the trade war launched by the Trump administration based on reciprocal customs surcharges which penalizes international trade. But the new coronavirus pandemic has pushed the tension between the two powers to new heights.
"Certain American political forces are taking hostage relations between China and the United States and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War" with the coroanvirus crisis, regretted Wang Yi.
Donald Trump has raised the possibility of asking Beijing to pay billions of dollars in compensation for the damage caused by the epidemic. And the United States has called for an international investigation into the origin of the virus.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday he was in favor of a "comprehensive assessment" of the global response to the new coronavirus once the epidemic is halted.
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