U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday ratcheted up his rhetoric against China over the coronavirus, saying Beijing should have acted faster to warn the world and dismissing criticism that his labeling it the “Chinese virus” was racist. Trump’s tougher language marked an escalation in a bitter war of words between the world’s top two economies that has widened to include the global pandemic and media freedoms. While Trump had previously left it mostly to his top aides to openly criticize China’s response to the virus, the Republican president joined the fray in earnest at a White House news conference on Wednesday.
