The virus may prove to be the most compelling reason for the two countries to “decouple” economically, as some of Trump’s hawkish advisers have long wanted.

Trump is expected to sign an executive order this week that will place new “Buy America” requirements on government purchases of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has been leading the effort, which would attempt to reduce reliance on China for vital drug ingredients and supplies like masks and gloves.

“The problem we’re facing is that any time we have a public health emergency, people wake up to the extreme foreign dependency that we have,” he said. “And after the crisis is over, they promptly go back to sleep.”

Steve Bannon, a former chief strategist in Trump’s White House who has long warned about the dangers posed by a rising China, said any goodwill built up as a result of reaching the initial trade deal is now moot. He blamed Beijing’s early actions — when it was accused of trying to cover up the crisis and resisting outside help — for “metastasizing” the pandemic.

“Now you can see they are on a propaganda offensive to blame this on the West, particularly the United States, and it’s going to lead to a further confrontation. There is a confrontation coming,” Bannon said.

He said a confrontation would likely involve an escalation “in the information war and the economic war.”

Escalating rhetoric could hinder coordinated response

Since the virus began to spread globally, officials on both sides have used social media and other platforms to attack each other.

Trump, for instance, has taken to calling the coronavirus the “Chinese virus,” a term critics say is racist and xenophobic. He says Beijing’s ruling Communist Party has left him no choice but to do this because Chinese officials are floating conspiracy theories that the COVID-19 illness began in the U.S. or was planted in China by the U.S. military.

“I have to call it where it came from; it did come from China,” Trump said Tuesday when asked about his use of the “Chinese virus” label. “So I think it’s a very accurate term.” He continued: “I didn’t appreciate the fact that China was saying that our military gave it to them.”

Trump on Wednesday pushed back on mounting criticism for his use of the term, insisting, “It’s not racist at all.”

Scientists believe the virus was first spotted in China’s Hubei province, where the city of Wuhan was an epicenter. But as China has, through strict quarantines and other measures, appeared to bring the virus under control, it has gone about trying to fudge that history.

A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, Lijian Zhao, has been particularly brash, using Twitter — a platform banned for most Chinese — to share articles and raise questions about whether the U.S. was the origin of the illness.

“It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!” Zhao tweeted on March 12.

Reciprocal action versus cooperation

The Washington-Beijing clash is going well beyond just rhetoric.

China said this week that it is expelling American journalists working for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. It also announced new restrictions on several U.S.-based outlets including Voice of America.

American reporters have been among the most aggressive in covering the coronavirus outbreak in China, as well as other issues deemed sensitive there.

China said it was merely taking reciprocal action after the Trump administration recently announced new restrictions on Chinese media outlets in America, including capping the number of Chinese citizens working for them. The Trump administration also has designated several Chinese media outlets as foreign missions — effectively treating them as arms of the Chinese government, which plenty of analysts say is a fair characterization.

In a briefing with reporters Wednesday, a senior State Department official defended the Trump administration’s approach in high altitude terms, saying that for decades the U.S. has tried to build a “normal relationship” with China, but that the Chinese have taken advantage of America’s relatively open system without offering similar access.

“For the last 40 years, you can characterize a relationship of them competing while we’ve been trying to cooperate. This administration has understood that this is a relationship characterized by strategic competition,” the official said.

Many public health experts have raised alarms about the U.S.-China rhetoric and reciprocal actions during the coronavirus crisis.