A group of Republican congressmen sent a letter Thursday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding China be held accountable for the spread of the coronavirus.
“Misinformation from China over the past several months has severely crippled global action to combat the global pandemic and undermined efforts by the State Department to work with other nations around the world to bring a swift end to this crisis,” they wrote.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo leaves a press conference at the State Department in Washington DC, on March 17, 2020. – (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
The letter was sent a day after U.S. intelligence confirmed that China falsified data related to the virus outbreak. (RELATED: Trump Campaign Donates Meals To Hospitals During Coronavirus Spread)
“Communist China lied about their data, destroyed evidence, and allowed the Wuhan virus to spread around the world. China arrested the very doctors who tried to warn the world about what was happening, and other whistleblowers have gone missing,” Republican Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar told the Daily Caller. “China’s deception and misinformation campaign cost the global community valuable time to mitigate the spread of the Wuhan virus, and they should be held accountable for unleashing this virus on the world.”
“For years people have speculated whether, in the long run, an open and democratic society like ours is truly better than a closed and authoritarian system like China’s,” Republican South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman told the Daily Caller. “Today the answer is once again evident; that transparency and accountability saves lives. With 50,000 worldwide deaths and counting, the price of censorship is unconscionable.”
The coronavirus pandemic has lead to nearly 5,000 deaths in the U.S. and has brought economic activity in the country to a halt.
“Our first priority in Congress is to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. We also have an obligation to challenge China for their deceit and misinformation campaign,” Republican North Dakota Rep. Kelly Armstrong told the Daily Caller. “We must ensure the Chinese Communist Party is not using this global health crisis to their advantage now or in the future.”
The Chinese Communist Party has also orchestrated a propaganda campaign attempting to place blame on the U.S. for the pandemic.
“The Chinese Communist regime has made this problem exponentially worse by not being truthful about the contagiousness and dangerousness of COVID-19, instead engaging in a campaign of blame-shifting, misinformation, and propaganda,” Republican Rep. Fred Keller told the Daily Caller. “It is imperative we learn more about the depth of China’s deceit to determine how best to hold them accountable for their part in exacerbating this pandemic.”