A cold war between the US and China may well follow this pandemic

Editorial: Though he has not quite said as much publicly, Mr Trump seems to be working himself up to presenting China with a ‘bill’ for Covid-19 damages. That is something the Chinese will never agree to

The president appears to have already started the coronavirus blame game

Whether Donald Trump’s statements about China’s culpability for the coronavirus pandemic are true or not – and there is no compelling public evidence so far – the fact that the president believes such a thing is significant in itself. Indeed, even by his own blustery standards, there seems a genuine anger in the president’s voice when he states that he has seen intelligence assessments that indicate that the virus somehow came out of a laboratory in Wuhan.

Such drumbeats of hostility are growing more insistent. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state and admittedly a Trump loyalist, has gone on the record with a claim of “enormous evidence” that the virus came from a Chinese lab. Even if it originated in bats, and has thus always existed in nature, and even if it is more likely to have crossed species barriers at a wildlife market, that is an extraordinary statement by the most senior American diplomat. There is also, reportedly, western intelligence gathered by the “five eyes” (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and the US) that indicates a Chinese cover-up and an effort to hoard medical supplies before admitting the epidemic had begun.

The Chinese strongly reject such allegations, and the arrogant and scapegoating mentality behind them. The Chinese ambassador in London, Liu Xiaoming, understandably, points out that China has been a victim of Covid-19, and that no one can be sure where this novel coronavirus originated. He insists that China notified the world about the epidemic as soon as possible.