Xi Jinping

'They should have never let this happen,' Trump said.

"You [Jinping], your government and your scientists had to know long ago that coronavirus is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it."

Mainland China had 39 new confirmed cases on Thursday, the National Health Commission said, all of them imported.

News of the visit gave a lift to Chinese stocks, with the blue-chip index climbing back into positive territory after falling as much as 1% in morning trade.

Li Wenliang, 34, was one of eight people detained by police for spreading "illegal" information after he tried to warn of the outbreak.

A headline in a local news journal appeared as “Dinner honors president shithole”, while the Myanmar State Secretary Aung San Suu Kyi's posted an unintentionally vulgar post on her official page.

"...We have to be here because we have no other choice. We have to continue until the government finally shows us the respect that we deserve"

"Nobody could change the fact that Taiwan was part of China, and that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should seek 'reunification.'"

The Chinese leader further said that China would like to form a strategic partnership with the Arab League to become "the keeper of peace and stability in the Middle East".