Mike Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State has accused China of culpability for the wide spread of the coronavirus that has impacted most of the countries’ way of life.
Pompeo accused China of hiding data about the severity of the outbreak that began in Wuhan China. The outbreak had devastated the economy of the world, as countries of the leading economy shut down their countries in order to avert the spread of the virus.
The CNN reported that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) determined that China cut back on the export of health materials, which they stockpiled for their future use.
“China likely cut its exports of medical supplies prior to its January WHO (World Health Organization) notification that COVID-19 is a contagion,” the report reads, according to the source.
The report, which assessed export and import data earlier this year, was circulated within the federal government on Friday, the source said. ABC first reported its existence.
Earlier Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stepped up administration claims that China mounted efforts to hide the extent of the coronavirus spread, including concealing the severity while stockpiling medical supplies.”
You’ve got the facts just about right,” Pompeo told ABC’s “This Week” when asked if China intentionally stockpiled medical supplies in early January while it concealed the severity of Covid-19. “We can confirm that the Chinese Communist Party did all that it could to make sure that the world didn’t learn in a timely fashion about what was taking place.”
Pompeo had said that China must pay a price for the intentional act. He told the various television networks that the United States will choose the time most auspicious to retaliate.
Besides, the intelligence report of hoarding the medical supplies such as personal protection equipment (PPE), Pompeo said that China refused American medical professionals access to the laboratory in Wuhan.
“President Trump is very clear, we’re gonna hold those responsible accountable and we’ll do so on a timeline that is our own,” Pompeo said.
Trump administration officials have been pushing the US intelligence community to determine the exact origins of the coronavirus outbreak in pursuit of an unproven theory that the pandemic started because of a laboratory accident in China, multiple sources told CNN. The President on Thursday contradicted the intelligence community and claimed he has seen evidence that gives him a “high degree of confidence” Covid-19 originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, but declined to provide details to back up his assertion.
Asked about the belief expressed by Trump and if he had seen evidence backing that claim, Pompeo said, “There’s enormous evidence that that’s where this began.”
“We’ve said from the beginning that this was a virus that originated in Wuhan, China. We took a lot of grief for that from the outside, but I think the whole world can see now,” he said. He later added, “there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.”
‘The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement Thursday that the “Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.”
Asked Sunday about that conclusion, Pompeo said he agreed with it. Pompeo said that he has “no reason to disbelieve” the intelligence community, adding, “I’ve seen their analysis. I’ve seen the summary that you saw that was released publicly. I have no reason to doubt that that is accurate.”
Though Pompeo also echoed Trump’s statement last week that he has seen evidence linking the outbreak to the Wuhan lab, which contradicted the statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. That statement said US intelligence was “rigorously” examining whether the outbreak was “through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.
“Pompeo added that China “behaved like authoritarian regimes do, attempted to conceal and hide and confused and employed the World Health Organization as a tool to do the same.”
“These are the kinds of things that have presented this enormous crisis and enormous loss of life and tremendous economic loss all across the globe,” he said. “The Australians agree with that, you hear the Europeans beginning to say the same thing, and I think the whole world is united understanding that China brought this virus to the world”.
“CNN reported last month that the US government was looking into the theory that the virus originated in the lab but hadn’t yet been able to corroborate it. In April, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the weight of evidence suggests the virus was of natural origin”. ‘Asked about whether China intentionally released the virus or if it was an accident, Pompeo refused to give an opinion’.
“I don’t have anything to say about that. I think there’s a lot to know, but I can say this. We’ve done our best to try and answer all of those questions. We tried to get a team in there, the WHO (World Health Organization) tried to get a team in there, and they have failed. No one’s been allowed to go into this lab or any of the other laboratories…this is an ongoing challenge. We still need to get in there. We still don’t have the virus samples we need.”
‘The US-China clash is brewing amid growing suspicion inside the administration over China’s rising strategic challenge and fury that the virus destroyed an economy seen as Trump’s passport to a second term’.
“There are serious questions to be addressed about China’s transparency in the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan and whether its autocratic system fostered an attempt to cover it up. The United States is not the only nation that wants answers amid a pandemic that has devastated the global economy and cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
“In response to building pressure, China has launched a propaganda effort to distract from its own culpability, including blaming US soldiers for importing the pathogen in remarks that infuriated Trump. On Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang accused “American politicians” of telling barefaced lies about the pandemic”.
“They have only one objective: to try to shirk responsibility for their own epidemic and prevention and control measures and divert public attention,” he said.
“On Wednesday, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua posted an animated video mocking the US response to the coronavirus pandemic as it described China’s response in a flattering way“.