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President Donald Trump decided Tuesday to stop branding the coronavirus as “the Chinese virus,” announcing that he did not regret the nickname.

“Look, everyone knows it came out of China, but I decided we shouldn’t make any more of a big deal out of it,” he told Fox News. “I think I’ve made a big deal. I think people understand it.”

Trump’s use of the term was widely denounced by advocacy groups and Asian American organizations for fomenting racism.

Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, is part of a coalition that has started tracking attacks against Asian Americans related to the coronavirus epidemic. They launched their tracker this past Thursday and within 24 hours had more than 40 reports.

“I talked to a woman several days ago who was accused of bringing the coronavirus to this country and was spat on by a stranger on the street” in San Francisco, Choi said.

At a news conference held after Trump began using the term, California Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced the uptick in such incidents and said the state would monitor them.

“I just want folks to know, we’re better than that,” Newsom said. “We’re going to begin to enforce that more aggressively.”

While Trump did not express regret for using the term, he did reiterate that he began doing so after Chinese media accused American soldiers of spreading the virus.

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