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China's ambassador to US slams Trump for COVID-19 blame
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/chinas-ambassador-us-slams-trump-covid-19-blame/storyWarning that tensions with China have reached "unprecedented" levels, China’s ambassador to the United States on Tuesday chastised President Donald Trump’s use of the phrase "China virus" and fiercely disputed accusations that the Chinese government withheld potentially life-saving information about COVID-19 in the earliest days of the pandemic.
"We have to base ourselves on real facts, and … the timeline is very clear," Ambassador Cui Tiankai said. "Everybody knew [early on] this is very dangerous."
In late December 2019, Chinese authorities identified "a few cases" of "pneumonia of unknown cause" in the Wuhan province, and within days -- on Jan. 3 -- the World Health Organization was notified, according to Tiankai. The next day, Chinese authorities "had their first communication" with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the new virus, but at that time "nobody in the world knew anything about" it, he said.
A week later, when there were still only "single-digit number of cases here in the United States," the Chinese government publicly released the genetic makeup of the virus, according to Tiankai, speaking during an online session of the annual Aspen Security Forum.
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