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US accuses China of spreading “overwhelming rumors” about the origin of the coronavirus

The United States accused China of planting seeds on Monday “preposterous rumors” on the origin of the coronavirus, signaling that the rivalry between the two great powers has not been muted by the need to fight the pandemic.

In a telephone interview, US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo told Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party’s top foreign policy official, on Monday, “strong American objections” It front of “efforts” from Beijing for “bring the hat to the United States for the Covid-19“, according to a statement from the State Department.

“The secretary of state underlined that the moment was badly chosen to sow disinformation and preposterous rumors, and that the time was ripe for the union of countries to fight this common threat”, adds the press release.

Another reading on the Chinese side: according to the official China news agency, Yang Jiechi sent him “a strong warning in the United States, warning that “Any attempt to smear China was doomed to failure.”

Washington had already summoned the Chinese ambassador to the United States on Friday to protest. In question: the tweets of a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian, who had suggested Thursday that the American army would have introduced the virus in Wuhan, the city of China where the epidemic started in December according to most scientists.
“Spreading conspiracy theories is dangerous and ridiculous”, then estimated an American official. China is seeking to deflect criticism of its role in the start of this global pandemic, without informing the world.”

The two rival powers have continued to multiply the spades

In fact, since the epidemic began to spread beyond China, the two rival powers have continued to multiply spades.

The administration of Donald Trump oscillated between denouncing an initial lack of transparency on the Chinese side, and signs of “confidence” from the American president to his counterpart Xi Jinping.

But the measures of the American government, which quickly prohibited the entry into the United States of the people coming from China, caused the anger of Beijing.

Mike Pompeo then himself stirred up this annoyance by speaking of the “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese virus” to evoke SARS-CoV-2, contrary to the recommendations of the World Health Organization.

“Beijing must recognize its role and participate in the solution”, the US foreign minister said on Twitter again on Monday.

At the same time as the major Western powers are trying to coordinate within the framework of the G7 of the most industrialized countries, the United States therefore stresses that the sacred world union does not put an end to tensions with the Asian giant, which they consider as their first long-term strategic rival.

Last week, Mike Pompeo had taken advantage of the presentation of the annual report of the State Department on human rights to denounce the repression of Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region.

“What the Chinese Communist Party does in Xinjiang is the worst task of this century”, he launched.

In addition to the fate of Uighur Muslims, the Trump administration is engaged on several other fronts against China, from the defense of democracy in Hong Kong to the denunciation of its military expansionism in the South China Sea via accusations of espionage. industrial.

Donald Trump, however, assured that the trade deal in the form of a truce in the customs tax war, concluded after months of negotiations, would not suffer from the new tensions linked to the coronavirus.

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