BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping assured U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday that China is doing all it can to contain a new coronavirus that has killed almost 640 people, including a doctor who sounded the alarm only to be threatened by police.
China was gradually achieving results and was confident it could defeat the epidemic with no long-term consequences for economic development, Xi told his U.S. counterpart in a telephone call, according to state television.
Xi had earlier declared a “people’s war” on the virus, saying the “whole country has responded with all its strength (and) the most thorough and strict prevention and control measures”, Xinhua news agency reported.
The call to the White House, which China has accused of scaremongering over the epidemic, came amid an outpouring of grief and anger on Chinese social media over the death of ophthalmologist Li Wenliang overnight.
Li, 34, was one of eight people reprimanded by police in Wuhan, the epicenter of the contagion, last month for spreading “illegal and false” information about the flu-like virus that has since triggered a global health emergency.
His messages to a group of doctors on Chinese social media warning of a new “SARS-like” coronavirus – a reference to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which originated in China killed almost 800 people around the world in 2002-2003 – triggered the wrath of Wuhan police.
China was accused of trying to cover up SARS.
Li was forced to sign a letter on Jan. 3 saying he had “severely disrupted social order” and was threatened with criminal charges.
Many Chinese people on social media described Li as a hero, accusing authorities of incompetence in the early stages of the outbreak which has now claimed more than 400 lives in Wuhan.
“We deeply mourn the