The annual United Nations General Assembly is an opportunity for the world's leaders and diplomats to speak about issues that concern them the most.  Over the years, the General Assembly has heard historic speeches, impassioned arguments, accusations, and also, unfortunately, fictions and outright lies.

On September 22, at the General Assembly, the U.S. President Trump took his signature style there. And in minutes, the President already exceeded his usual daily average of lies. "We have waged a fierce battle against the invisible enemy, the China Virus, which has claimed countless lives in 188 countries," he said.

This is misleading. President Trump repeatedly used the term of "China Virus", it is more than just a reference to the origin of the pandemic; it is also part of his campaign to advance a conspiracy theory about the virus leaking from a lab in Wuhan, whether intentionally or accidentally. This claim has already been rejected by President Trump's own Director of National Intelligence.

"Yes, I have," said President Trump on May 1, 2020 when asked about whether he has seen evidence to suggest the virus originated in the lab. When later asked for more details, he said, "I cannot tell you that. I'm not allowed to tell you that." Nearly five months later, there still has not been a shred of evidence to back up his claim.

Now, in his most recent article titled "Trump lied about science" published on September 18, Holden Thorp, Editor-in-Chief of Science Journal, says that "because famed Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward recorded him, we can hear Trump's own voice saying that he understood precisely that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was deadly, and spread through the air…Trump lied, plain and simple."

Then, President Trump began a prolonged attack on China. "As we pursue this bright future, we must hold accountable the nation that unleashed this plague onto the world – China – in the earliest days of the virus, China locked down travel domestically, while allowing flights to leave China and infect the world," he said.

This is another conspiracy that has been rejected by many. The comprehensive review by Factcheck.org shows this falsehood originating in a column in the Sunday Times on April 5 by historian and author, Niall Ferguson, and later rebutted by Daniel Bell, dean of School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University.

Using flight data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Bell was able to show that international flights were cancelled along with domestic flights on January 23, the very day the lockdown on Wuhan was imposed.

Ferguson later acknowledged this fact in an update of his own article, but Tuesday was not the first time, nor even the second time, President Trump repeated the claim, even though Factcheck.org alerted the White House to its findings.

Perhaps Trump saw the speech as a chance to make a last-ditch effort to divert attention from his administration's handling of the pandemic by passing the buck for the blame.

He certainly believes there are plenty who deserve to be blamed for America's problems: China, the WTO, the Democrats, his predecessors, his opponents, generals, governors, mayors, the press, scientists, medical staff, you name it.

Almost everyone, in fact, apart from the very man who has been in charge of America for the last four years and responsible, presumably, for keeping it secure.

Now on the same day, Chinese President Xi Jinping also addressed the United Nations General Assembly Hall via video, and observers noted that President Xi struck a very different tone.

In his speech, President Xi addressed the question of how China and the international community should face this period of uncertainty, change and increased division among nations. He proposed four pillars upon which the UN could regain its place in the world: justice, the rule of law, cooperation and action.

Xi said the world must stand up for the UN as central to global governance. A main focus, of course, is prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic and how to build global solidarity in that regard.

Observers say President Xi and President Trump were talking to different audiences there. President Xi was offering China's solutions to some of the most salient global challenges to the audience of the world, whereas President Trump was mainly talking to his supporters on the state of his campaign.

Of course, the exchanges are being interpreted as the latest sign of worsening China-U.S. tensions, but maybe it was something more. In their speeches, China and the U.S. spoke not just about the world, but also about their positions in the world. China proposed a future of collaboration, justice and law. The U.S. proposed a future of unilateralism, finger-pointing and self-interest.

As the world works to solve the pandemic, and further ahead, works towards achieving the development goals it has set for itself over the years, it may be worth considering which position is better suited to getting both jobs done.

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