Just one of two political parties that seem concerned about China’s exponential growth, power, influence, designs on international hegemony, and human rights abuses, the Republicans now add corruption to their list of CCP complaints. GOP members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee recently released their report on China’s efforts related to the spread of COVID-19. They accuse the Communist dictatorship of covering up the threat imposed by the virus – as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) of a dereliction of duty in monitoring China’s actions and failures of disclosure.
According to International Health Regulations, all nations are responsible for informing the world about an outbreak – particularly one as virulent as COVID-19. China failed to do so early in the pandemic, but the report alleges nefarious actions beyond this cynical misstep – including complicity in spreading the virus.
Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, including Michael McCaul (R-TX), call for WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to resign for failing to rebuke China for its outrageous actions that caused or contributed to (depending on your perspective) the international spread of the Coronavirus. McCaul stated:
“It is crystal clear that had the CCP been transparent, and had the head of the WHO cared more about global health than appeasing the CCP, lives could have been spared and widespread economic devastation could have been mitigated. Revealing the truth is just the first step; we must hold both the CCP and WHO Director-General Tedros accountable for the suffering they have allowed the world to endure.”
Recall that the WHO lauded China for its “political leadership” and its “political commitment” during a public health crisis, parroted Chinese propaganda in January that there was no evidence of person-to-person transmission, and waited until March 11 to label COVID-19 a pandemic. The WHO Director-General has made running interference for Xi Ping a priority over transparency and the need to respond decisively and effectively to the pandemic threat. Little wonder then that President Trump announced the severance of American funding for the WHO in the wake of the allegations and global devastations from the virus.
(Photo by Watchara Phomicinda/MediaNews Group/The Press-Enterprise via Getty Images)
If accurate, the report is damning. It holds that possible evidence of the origins of the virus was destroyed when the Chinese government shuttered and sanitized the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan on January 1, where the first cases were linked. Also alleged is that CCP authorities had ample information that the outbreak constituted an international public health emergency as early as the middle of December but waited until January 30 to make that designation.
On Tedros’ authority, the WHO waited nearly a month and a half to declare the virus an international public health emergency. And it was he who announced COVID-19 was a pandemic on March 11 – almost six weeks after President Trump issued the travel ban from China for which he was labeled a racist. For these reasons, Republicans call for the WHO Director-General’s resignation – the first ever to hold the job without a medical degree.
The report also asserts the likelihood that international ability to appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) was greatly hindered by China’s nationalization of other countries’ manufacturing capacity. In this case, the upshot meant that companies such as 3M didn’t have an ample supply of such items as N95 masks to meet the demand in the United States or that delivery of these items was significantly slowed.
Although a Chinese virologist and whistleblower who fled Hong Kong in fear for her life has alleged that COVID-19 is a genetically modified, lab-created virus released intentionally, the Republican report sides with the current consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies that it is a naturally occurring, wild virus. Nevertheless, the report also cites 2018 State Department concerns that dire safety conditions existed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and leaves open the question of whether the WIV played any more significant role in the origin and spread of the virus.
Democrats and much of the left are loath to impugn China whatsoever regarding COVID-19, as doing so dilutes their attacks on what they have loudly decried as Trump’s disastrous response to the virus. Thus they have allowed a Communist dictatorship that has effectively declared its intention to be anointed the greatest superpower in the world free reign to control the narrative around the 2020 pandemic.
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