Chinese president Xi Jinping has called on Donald Trump to take “substantive actions” to improve relations between the two countries, as China prepared to shut its borders to foreign arrivals amid fears of infections coming from abroad.
On Friday, Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping held a phone call about the coronavirus outbreak in an attempt to repair strained relations, following weeks of traded barbs over the virus. According to state media, Xi told Trump in a phone call on Friday that US-China relations had reached an “important juncture”.
“Working together brings both sides benefits, fighting hurts both. Cooperation is the only choice,” he said. Xi said he hoped the US would take “substantive actions” to improve US-China relations to develop a relationship that is “without conflict and confrontation” but based on “mutual respect and mutually beneficial cooperation.”
Trump has continued to call the disease “the Chinese virus,” despite protestations from Beijing. Chinese diplomats have in turn pushed the idea that the virus, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, originated in the US.
Xi also said he hoped the US would take “effective measures” to safeguard the lives of Chinese citizens in the US, describing the pandemic as the “common enemy of mankind.” He said: “Only by united can the international community defeat it.” » | Lily Kuo in Shanghai | Friday, March 27, 2020
