At U.N., Trump demands action against China over virus, Xi urges cooperation

U.S. President Donald Trump used the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday to attack China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying it must be held accountable for having “unleashed this plague onto the world.”

By contrast, China’s President Xi Jinping struck a conciliatory tone in his pre-recorded virtual address to the General Assembly, calling for enhanced cooperation over the pandemic and stressing that China had no intention of fighting “either a Cold War or a hot war with any country.”

The leaders of the world’s two largest economies laid out their competing visions as relations have plunged to their worst level in decades against the backdrop of the pandemic, with coronavirus tensions aggravating trade and technology disputes.