Trump dismisses concerns about Chinese misinformation
President Trump continues to take a non-confrontational tack with China, since his phone call with Xรญ Jรฌnpรญng ไน ่ฟๅนณ last weekย and amicable tweet afterwards.
Today, he โbrushed aside allegationsย that China โ as well as Russia and Iran โ are spreading misinformation about the origin of the coronavirus during a 64-minute call with โFox & Friendsโ on Monday, telling the hosts that โevery country does it,โโ per Axios.
China is likely to โfurther embraceย the more subtle Russian-style approachโ to disinformation about the coronavirus, senior American intelligence officials told the New York Times, even if the Chinese Foreign Ministry has backed offย from its high-profile conspiracy theories.
No current Trump moodย is ever a predictor of future Trump mood, but what may be keeping the American president in a non-confrontational posture is his eternal obsession with the trade deficit. Despite saying on Friday that โnobody cares about trade,โ CNN reports: โbehind closed doors, White House officials say, Trump continues to emphasize farm product sales to China.โ
More U.S.-China relations news:
โA commercial aircraft carrying 80 tons of gloves, masks, gowns and other medical supplies from Shanghai touched down in New York on Sunday, the first of 22 scheduled flights that White House officials say will funnel much-needed goods to the United States by early April as it battles the worldโs largest coronavirus outbreak,โ the New York Times reports.
โAmerican doctors and nursesย sought to learn more from the field experiences of Chinese doctors,โ who have arranged multiple video conferences with their counterparts across the Pacific in recent days, according to the Global Times.
Two op-eds worth reading:
- Minxin Pei: It is time for China and the US to fight Covid-19 togetherย / FT (paywall)
- Peter Beinart: Breaking with China is exactly the wrong answerย / Atlantic (porous paywall)
โLucas Niewenhuis
