Trump indicates climb down on use of Chinese virus

US President Donald Trump has indicated a climb down on the use of "Chinese Virus" due to the origin of the deadly coronavirus, which has antagonised Beijing and several lawmakers and rights bodies.

Last week, President Trump said that China is responsible for the spread of the novel coronavirus and called the COVID-19 as the "Chinese Virus".

He insisted the term was accurate because the virus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

"I don't have to say if they (Chinese) feel so strongly about it. We will see, Trump told reporters at the White House ahead of his call with President Xi Jinping of China.

At the same time, he defended the use of the term for the deadly coronavirus, saying that it originated from China.

The virus that first emerged in China's Wuhan city in the Hubei province in December last year has spread to 175 countries, infected 531,860 people and has claimed 24,057 lives, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus tracker.

After Trump indicated he was going to stop using the term, a reporter asked the president whether President Xi had asked him to stop referring to "the Chinese virus."
"Nobody spoke to me about it. I think it was fine, though," Trump said, adding: "I talk about the Chinese virus and I mean it. That's where it came from. If you look at Ebola, if you look at Lyme, Connecticut, look at all these horrible diseases, they seem to come with the name with the location. This was the Chinese virus."
We've changed it. Look, now we're taking in billions of dollars. And we gave some to our farmers because China... they targeted our farmers. Our farmers are very happy and our farmers got through a very rough (time). Because of what I was able to do, took the money from China and gave it to the farmers, and we had plenty left over after that, he said