新闻纵贯线 Today updated 20:00 2017/08/25（在线收听）

美国：走向分裂的国家

Welcome to 'Today' - an hour of world news and analysis -- from a different perspective. I'm Suyi.

U.S. President Donald Trump this week called for national unity as he addressed veterans in Nevada, a day after he emphasized divisions at a rally in neighboring Arizona.

He said the American people are not defined by the color of skin, the figure on paycheck or the party of politics. Trump's tone was different from what he said at the Phoenix rally on Tuesday when he began with talks of unity but quickly erupted in anger.

The decision by Charlottesville's city council to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a local public park sparked a white supremacist rally on Aug. 12 that later turned into violent clashes between rival protesters. A 32-year-old woman was killed and 19 others were injured when a sports car driven by a suspected Nazi supporter plowed into a crowd protesting white supremacism.

Trump at first blamed "many sides" for the Charlottesville violence and corrected his comments to condemn white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the KKK after two days.

Today we talk about the divisions in the United States.

Joining our discussion are Brian Kopczynski, American journalist based in Beijing；Professor Ran Jijun with China Foreign Affairs University；and Prof Eric Shepherd, Professor of Chinese language, culture and literature at University of South Florida also the author of Eat Shandong.

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