Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed the Chinese Communist Party on Tuesday for allowing the coronavirus outbreak to turn into a pandemic that is causing global “suffering.”
He said the Chinese Communists kept a lid of secrecy on initial reports of the disease and then downplayed he seriousness of it, causing other countries to stay unprepared.
“It took an awful long time for the world to become aware of this risk that was sitting there residing inside of China,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department media briefing. (RELATED: ‘Buy American’ — White House Confirms Executive Order That Will End Medical Supply Chain Reliance On China)
“Every nation has a responsibility to share all of their data, all of their information in as timely and accurate a fashion as they have the ability to do, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because that’s how you save lives for your own people as well,” he said. “The Chinese Communist Party had a responsibility to do this not only for Americans and Italians and South Koreans and Iranians who are now suffering, but for their own people as well.”
Pompeo has routinely referred to the coronavirus, or COVID-19, as the Wuhan coronavirus, in reference to the Chinese city where the disease is thought to have originated. President Donald Trump called the pandemic the “Chinese virus” for the first time Monday. (RELATED: Karl Rove: ‘Unbelievable’ That Joe Biden Is Fundraising Off Of The Coronavirus)
US President Donald Trump (L) and China’s President Xi Jinping leave a business leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9, 2017. (Photo credit: NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP via Getty Images)
During his speech to the nation last Wednesday, he referred to the sickness as being “foreign,” prompting criticism from CNN and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that he was being “xenophobic.”
China has recently developed a conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was exported to that country by the U.S. Army.