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Relations between the U.S. and China, strained for years, have deteriorated at a rapid clip in recent months, leaving the two nations with fewer shared interests and a growing list of conflicts.
The Trump administration has moved to involve much of the U.S. government in a campaign that includes investigations, prosecutions and export restrictions. Nearly every cabinet and cabinet-level official either has adopted adversarial positions or jettisoned past cooperative programs with Beijing, an analysis of their policies showed.
“ A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman on Wednesday challenged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to present evidence to support his recent claim that the new coronavirus came from a Chinese laboratory. ”
Chinese officials, for their part, are following through on President Xi Jinping’s call last fall to resist anything they perceive as standing in the way of China’s rise. They have stepped up military activities in the contested South China Sea and intimidation of Taiwan, a U.S. ally, and state media has issued extraordinary public denunciations of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The coronavirus pandemic has deepened the rancor, bringing relations between the two to a modern-day nadir. Both governments are forgoing cooperation and trying to outmaneuver each other to shape events in the post-pandemic world order.
Some of the central recommendations in a leaked National Republican Senatorial Committee memo to campaign staff last month.
MarketWatch
See:Inside China’s campaign to blame the U.S. for the coronavirus pandemic
President Trump, who has sharply criticized China for its handling of the outbreak, has said he is considering using tariffs and other ways to collect compensation for it from Beijing, though senior officials signaled this week that the administration is holding off on punishing China economically.
An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com.
Reported by Kate O’Keeffe, Michael C. Bender and Chun Han Wong.
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