Washington Times: Trump defends virus tweet as China kicks out more reporters
“President Trump on Tuesday denounced China for falsely claiming the U.S. Army spread the deadly coronavirus in China, as Beijing condemned Mr. Trump’s use of the phrase ‘Chinese Virus’ and said it was expelling more U.S. journalists from the country. Asked Tuesday about a tweet the day before referring to the virus, Mr. Trump told reporters, ‘Well, China was putting out information which was false that our military did this to them.’ ‘That was false and rather than having an argument, I said I had to call it where it came from. It did come from China. So I think it’s a very accurate term,’ he said…” (Gertz, 3/17).

Additional coverage of U.S. and China relations in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic is available from The Hill, The Intercept, New York Times, and Washington Post.