I am referring to today’s article.

In aggravation (all emphases mine):

“This is such a dangerous dynamic for the world,” said Rachel Esplin Odell, a China expert with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, which advocates restraint in U.S. military policy.

“This is kind of the archetypal issue on which you would hope to have cooperation among the whole world – but especially among leading powers – because the downside is so high when you don’t have it,” said Jacob Stokes, a senior China policy analyst with the U.S. Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan institute.

But U.S.-China relations are “the worst they’ve been in nearly 50 years,” said Stokes, a former national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.

Yong Wang, who directs the American studies center at Peking University in Beijing, said relentless rhetoric from the Trump administration blaming China for the coronavirus outbreak risks a new “Cold War.” It could also undermine the view of America among the Chinese public, he said.

Does Trump need to tread carefully? (subhead; no corresponding ‘Does Xi need to tread carefully?’ headings).

Wang, the Peking University expert, said that if the U.S. pushes ahead with threats to seek coronavirus-related damages against China or to “decouple” the two economies, it probably would backfire. China is already starting to show signs that it will be the first economy to recover from the crisis, putting Beijing in a stronger position to retaliate if relations deteriorate further. (straight up propaganda, no evidence submitted)

In mitigation:

China has also come under fire for its lack of transparency over the outbreak, particularly in the initial stage, when it censored information about the virus and silenced doctors who tried to raise alarms. That sparked an intense backlash inside China – which Xi quickly moved to stifle – as well as abroad. 

Even now, U.S. officials and health experts have questioned whether China’s infection rates and death toll can be trusted. Raising further concerns, Beijing has restricted access to its research on the virus, according to a CNN report.

In a startling propaganda video, China’s government has openly mocked Trump’s attempts to down play the virus.