The article discusses how the covid-19 pandemic has brought relations between China and the U.S. to its lowest point since China reopened to the world in 1978, even lower even than in those extraordinary days following the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, as of May 2020. It reports that trade-centric relationship since the start of President Donald Trump's term, has now descended into bitterness in the midst of a presidential reelection campaign Trump fears is slipping away.