Beijing and Washington were already at loggerheads since the trade war launched two years ago by Donald Trump. But with the Covid-19 crisis, the tension reached heights between the two powers. As the White House multiplies the criticisms and accusations on the management of the crisis by China, this one begins to see red.

"In addition to the devastation caused by the new coronavirus, a political virus is spreading in the United States," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters on Sunday. With the coronavirus crisis, "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", he further lambasted.

Donald Trump and his administration accuse Beijing of having delayed communicating crucial data on the epidemic, which appeared at the end of 2019 in the city of Wuhan (center), and of having thus facilitated its spread. He even raised the possibility of asking Beijing to pay billions of dollars in reparation and threatened to cut "all relations" with Beijing which he holds responsible for a "mass killing." 

"Respond to every insult"

"This political virus seizes every opportunity to attack and defame China," denounced the chief diplomat of the second largest economic power in the world, on the sidelines of the annual session of the Chinese Parliament. "We will respond to every insult," said the Chinese foreign minister.

In a barely veiled spade, Wang Yi called on the United States to "stop wasting time and wasting precious lives", as the country most affected by the pandemic prepares to cross the 100 mark 000 dead.

"Covid-19 is the common enemy of China and the United States," said Wang Yi, who said his country had shipped more than 11 billion masks to Uncle Sam, out of a total of 56.8 billion. exported all over the world. "It makes 40 masks for each American," insisted the head of Chinese diplomacy.

Ready for international cooperation to identify the source of the Covid-19

Wang Yi also said he was "ready" for international cooperation to identify the source of the new coronavirus. He however warned that such an initiative should refrain from any "political interference", at the time when Washington is pressing for the opening of an international investigation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was more vague on Monday in a message to the Annual Meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO). He had given the green light to a "full assessment" of the global response to the new coronavirus. But only after the epidemic was stopped, he insisted.

With AFP 

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