US House Faults China for Pandemic

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WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - A U.S. House of Representatives resolution is demanding the Chinese government accept full responsibility for the global pandemic owing to its mishandling of the Wuhan virus.

On Tuesday, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., introduced a resolution to condemn China's communist officials for not containing the coronavirus that originated in the city of Wuhan.

The resolution states, "The Government of the People's Republic of China made multiple, serious mistakes in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak that heightened the severity and spread of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic."

These "mistakes" include "the Chinese government's intentional spread of misinformation to downplay the risks of the virus, a refusal to cooperate with international health authorities, internal censorship of doctors and journalists, and malicious disregard for the health of ethnic minorities," according to the resolution.

Citing a study by the University of Southampton, the resolution holds: "If China had taken action three weeks earlier, the spread of coronavirus would be reduced by 95% globally."

Demands made on the Chinese government by the resolution include:

• Publicly state that there's no evidence that COVID-19 originated anywhere else but China
• Denounce the baseless conspiracy that the United States Army placed COVID-19 in Wuhan
• Revoke its expulsion of American journalists
• End its detainment of Uyghur Muslims and other persecuted ethnic minorities
• End all forced labor programs

The resolution condemned China's "censorship of doctors and journalists during the early days of the outbreak."

It likewise condemned China's "refusal to allow scientists from the Centers for Disease Control to assist its response to COVID-19 for over a month after cooperation was offered."

It held that this refusal needlessly endangered "the lives of its own citizens and hampered early attempts by the United States to learn more about the virus."

It furthermore condemned "China's National Health Commissions' duplicitous denial of the person-to-person transmissibility" of the Wuhan virus.

Earlier this month China blamed the U.S. military for creating and spreading the pathogen, which has now infected nearly half a million people in some 200 counties.

But it is almost universally recognized that China is to blame for the outbreak. Political scientist Andrew Michta, for example, declared earlier this month that there was no doubt that China is at fault for the pandemic.

"The question about assigning agency and blame is pretty straightforward to answer," wrote Michta.

The House resolution, which tracks China's suppression of information about the virus and how it was allowed to spread unchecked in the crucial early weeks has gained bi-partisan support. The resolution points out that China was aware of the viral outbreak in mid-December but allowed it to go unchecked.

The Wuhan virus has now claimed more than 16,000 lives worldwide and is blamed for erasing more than $10 trillion from the U.S. stock market. And all indications seem to suggest the worst is yet to come.

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