Donald Trump has sent a note to wish Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, a prosperous lunar new year 11 days after the festival began, the Financial Times reports. While cordial, the letter from the US president reflected a marked deterioration in relations between Washington and Beijing. An editorial in the China Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper, said Trump’s “make-up effort” was “belated”. “The new US president has broken the tradition of sending new year greetings to people of Chinese origin in the US during their most important festival,” it said. While Trump has had a flurry of high-profile telephone conversations with world leaders since his inauguration, there has been no such contact with Xi. The two leaders spoke by phone soon after the US election in November but contacts since then have been between White House officials and their Chinese counterparts.
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