{"id":6712,"date":"2020-02-08T12:20:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-08T16:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=6712"},"modified":"2020-02-08T12:25:57","modified_gmt":"2020-02-08T16:25:57","slug":"why-has-president-trump-all-of-a-sudden-turned-the-corner-concerning-chinas-response-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=6712","title":{"rendered":"Why has President Trump all of a sudden turned the corner concerning China&#8217;s response to the coronavirus outbreak?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Trump says Xi\u2019s \u2018sharp\u2019 leadership will defeat coronavirus in U-turn on harsh anti-China rhetoric<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->RT.com<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6713\" style=\"width: 778px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6713\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6713\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/5e3d7ada85f54023603bd004.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" srcset=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/5e3d7ada85f54023603bd004.jpg 768w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/5e3d7ada85f54023603bd004-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6713\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers in protective suits examine specimens inside a laboratory following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan. \u00a9 Reuters \/ China Daily<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article__text text \">\n<p>The two leaders discussed the outbreak of the virus, which has claimed 640 lives in China, during a phone call on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>That provided the perfect grounds for an attack on Beijing, but Trump, who earlier blasted China for currency manipulation, intellectual property theft, and election meddling, was this time reluctant to take advantage of the dire health crisis in order to attack Beijing.<\/p>\n<p>On the contrary the US president\u2019s evaluation of the Chinese state and leader was a lot more positive; it follows the US-China trade war ending in January with the signing of what he called the\u00a0<em>\u201cbiggest deal there is.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8230;.he will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm &amp; the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone. Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1225728756456808448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 7, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Xi is\u00a0<em>\u201cstrong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the coronavirus,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Trump tweeted in the wake of the phone call. He praised China for \u201cgreat discipline\u201d and\u00a0<em>\u201cbuilding hospitals in a matter of only days.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>Nothing is easy, but he [Xi] will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm &amp; the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The US president also said that Washington was\u00a0<em>\u201cworking closely\u201d<\/em>\u00a0with Beijing to help the country counter the disease.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s latest tweets again underline the discord inside his administration as his top officials maintain their harsh anti-Chinese stance despite the trade deal; one week ago US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo labeled the Chinese Communist Party, which is headed by Xi,\u00a0<em>\u201cthe central threat of our times.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Pompeo\u2019s statement was fully in line with the National Defense Strategy (NDA), which was unveiled by the US Department of Defense two years ago and described China as\u00a0<em>\u201cpredatory,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and a\u00a0<em>\u201cstrategic competitor,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0which required\u00a0<em>\u201cincreased and sustained investment\u201d<\/em>\u00a0to be kept in check.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>China, in turn, consistently blasted Washington for its\u00a0<em>\u201cCold War mentality\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>\u201chegemonic logic.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Beijing further accused the US of interfering in its internal affairs by sending ships and warplanes close to its waters in the Pacific, as well as supporting protests in Hong Kong. In late January, it also slammed the travel warning issued by the State Department over the coronavirus outbreak as\u00a0<em>\u201ctruly mean.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/480344-trump-xi-china-coronavirus\/\">https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/480344-trump-xi-china-coronavirus\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump says Xi\u2019s \u2018sharp\u2019 leadership will defeat coronavirus in U-turn on harsh anti-China rhetoric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}