After weeks of rising tensions, President Trump called China’s leader, Xi Jinping, and offered words of sympathy and praise for the Chinese government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “We are working closely together. Much respect!”

Even for Trump, the shift in tone was striking, coming only days after he made a point of referring to the coronavirus as a “Chinese virus”.

A day before the call, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters in Washington that “the Chinese Communist Party poses a threat to our health and way of life, as the Wuhan virus outbreak clearly has demonstrated”.

Trump and Xi last spoke directly in February, and both took part in a video conference call of leaders of the Group of 20 nations on Thursday.

China’s readout of the two leaders’ conversation was more restrained. Perhaps mindful of criticism of the country’s early handing of the epidemic, Xi stressed in the call that China had been sharing information in “an open, transparent and responsible manner” with the WHO and the US.

“I am paying very close attention and worried about the development of the epidemic in the US,” Xi said.