US, China call for cooperation amid renewed virus tensions

WASHINGTON/GENEVA (AFP) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a top Chinese official on Wednesday called for mutual coronavirus cooperation, signaling a bid to keep a lid on their countries' renewing tensions.

President Donald Trump's administration has berated China for not sharing data more quickly and said Tuesday it was freezing funds to the World Health Organization (WHO) for not challenging Beijing.

Pompeo renewed his push for “full transparency” in a call Wednesday with

senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi, but the State Department's tone was unusually positive.

Pompeo “noted the aid the American people delivered to the people of China in January – and continue to offer – and the high importance we attach to China's facilitation of medical supply exports to meet critical demand in the United States,” the State Department said.

“The two sides confirmed their commitment to defeat the COVID-19 outbreak and restore global health and prosperity,” it said.

In a summary of the conversation, Chinese official news agency Xinhua said Yang had indicated that “China stands ready to continue sharing information and experience on epidemic prevention and control with the United States.”

The country would also work to implement the consensus reached among G20 nations – the world's largest economies – to keep global supply chains stable and promote economic stability, Xinhua said.

China is a vital source of masks and other supplies desperately needed by the United States, which has the highest number both of infections and deaths from the virus.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had appeared to reach a truce in a phone call late last month, with Trump and Pompeo afterward ending the provocative use of the terms “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus.”

According to Yang, the two sides have since “maintained close communication on anti-epidemic efforts in line with the important consensus reached by the two heads of state,” Xinhua said.

Yang also emphasized that it was “crucial” for the two countries to properly handle their relations and maintain healthy bilateral ties, Xinhua said.

Even if the rhetoric is more civil, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday that China should provide more information on the virus that originated in its metropolis of Wuhan.

“Even today, we see them withholding information. And so I think we need to do more and continue to press them to share,” Esper told Fox News.

Trump's Democratic rivals say the WHO announcement was a dangerous attempt to divert attention from problems in the US response as Trump gears up for elections.

Trump himself had in January said he had the virus “totally under control” and praised China as transparent.

Global backlash Criticism was heaped on Trump for his move against the WHO, with friends and foes of the United States calling for global solidarity in the fight against the coronavirus and its economic devastation.

The pandemic is entering a new and uncertain phase as governments debate how to reboot commerce without triggering new infection waves of a virus that has killed more than 125,000 people.

In hard-hit Europe, a patchwork of countries are easing lockdown measures, with Denmark the first on the continent to send some children back to school and Germany announcing it would allow most shops to open with "plans to maintain hygiene".

Yet in poorer and more densely populated parts of the world, many governments are still struggling to enforce restrictions on movement that are piling misery on the needy and spreading hunger.

On the horizon looms the worst economic downturn in a century, which the International Monetary Fund has said could see $9 trillion wiped from the global economy.

Offering a lifeline for the world's poorest countries, the G20 – a group of the world's leading economies – said it would temporarily suspend debt repayments from the most impoverished nations.

The reprieve will free up more than $20 billion for those countries to focus on the pandemic and will last at least a year, according to Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan.

But the global economic outlook remains gloomy, with Europe's powerhouse Germany already in recession and US industrial output declining by 6.3 percent – its biggest fall in seven decades.

More than a third of French workers are on temporary unemployment, the government said Wednesday, as the virus toll topped 17,000 while hospital numbers went down for the first time.

Trump's blame-game

As the world tries to chart a way out of the crisis, Trump ramped up his blame-game with the WHO, the UN's health agency.

Accusing the WHO of "severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus", Trump ordered a freeze on payments – the US was its top individual donor last year giving $400 million.

The outbreak could have been contained "with very little death" if the WHO had accurately assessed the situation when the disease broke out late last year in China, Trump alleged.

Allies and enemies of the US fired back at the American leader, who played down the dangers of the virus until it arrived in full force in the US, where it has now chalked up its highest death tolls.

"No doubt, areas for improvement will be identified and there will be lessons for all of us to learn," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that he would work to cover any funding gaps.

UN chief Antonio Guterres also condemned Trump's move while billionaire Bill Gates, a major WHO contributor, tweeted that cutting funding was "as dangerous as it sounds".

European allies were similarly disapproving and Washington's rivals also took aim -- Russia condemning the "selfish approach" of the US, and China and Iran blasting the move as dangerous.

Normality a long way off

With tentative hope the death tolls and infection rates could be plateauing in some European hotspots, a handful of countries are experimenting with phasing out restrictions.

Germany said most shops would be allowed to reopen but measures such as bans on large events would remain in place and schools would stay closed until at least May 4.

While children started returning to nurseries and primary schools in parts of Denmark, Lithuania said it would allow smaller shops to reopen from Thursday.

A travel ban around the Helsinki region was also scrapped, though Finland's Prime Minister urged residents to continue avoiding unnecessary movement, saying "now is not the right time to go to the summer cottage".

In Brussels, the EU unveiled a proposed roadmap for loosening controls across the bloc with the help of smartphone tracking apps that could detect local flare-ups of the virus.