Coronavirus: Donald Trump and Xi Jinping try to join forces

Effigies of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping masked in a Moscow street, March 23, 2020. REUTERS / Evgenia Novozhenina

Text by: Zhifan Liu Follow

The American and Chinese presidents called each other on Friday morning, after weeks of tension between the two superpowers. The interview tends to allay the disagreements between Beijing and Washington which call for a coordinated fight against the epidemic.

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From our correspondent in Zhengzhou

This is a phone call that comes when the two countries have been in the Cold War for two years and their relations have hardly warmed since the start of the health crisis. Xi Jinping insisted on cooperation to overcome the pandemic, while establishing a Sino-American relationship without conflict or confrontation. Quite the opposite in recent weeks, which have seen Beijing and Washington drain at the slightest opportunity.

► Read also: Infox on the Covid-19, China strikes back

Donald Trump, like his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, continue to designate the coronavirus as the " Chinese virus ", provoking the ire of the Communist staff, who no longer hesitates, through the voice of a diplomat. Chinese, to relay a conspiracy thesis which claims that the coronavirus was imported by the American army into China.

► Read also: The virus of discord between Beijing and Washington

Beijing also ordered the expulsion of all American journalists from the Wall Street Journal , the Washington Post and the New York Times operating in Chinese territory.

This exchange comes as the United States has become the country with the most cases of coronavirus in the world with 85,000 cases against 81,340 for China, the cradle of the epidemic which ensures that the situation is now under control.

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  • China
  • United States
  • Xi Jinping
  • Donald trump
  • Coronavirus

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