Amid a global coronavirus pandemic, January's uneasy truce between the world's two largest economies has given way to a war of words across a variety of platforms. China watchers see the escalating diplomatic overtures, including the expulsion of journalists, as attempts to distract from domestic troubles, predicting more to come.

The latest scuffle centres on the origin of the virus, with one Beijing official suggesting it could have originated from US troops visiting China even as members of the Trump administration persist in calling it the "Wuhan virus".