Trump says does not wish to talk to Xi ‘right now’

Tensions have ratcheted up between the United States and China as they have traded barbs over the origin of the pandemic that has killed 300 000 people.

Trump has for weeks accused China of concealing the true scale of the outbreak, which first appeared in late 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, thus allowing it to spread unchecked.

Beijing strongly denies the charge, insisting it transmitted all available data as soon as possible to the World Health Organization.

Trump doubled down on his accusation in the Fox Business interview, saying: “It all came from China and they should have stopped it.