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While some individual states have already filed lawsuits against China, the administration of United States President Donald Trump is considering measures against Beijing for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump’s position is that China could have done more to warn and protect the world from the pandemic.
Plus:
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that “huge tests” showed that the new coronavirus originated in a laboratory in China, further fueling tensions with Beijing over its handling of the outbreak.
Trump, increasingly critical of China’s management of the first outbreak in the city of Wuhan in December, said last week that he had evidence that it started in a Chinese laboratory.
Scientists believe the virus jumped from animals to humans, after emerging in China, possibly from a market in Wuhan that sells exotic animals for meat.
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Coronavirus: Lessons from Asia |
Trump, without elaborating, said Thursday that he had seen evidence that the Wuhan Virology Institute was the source, and appeared to echo speculation fueled by right-wing U.S. radio commentators about a secret laboratory.
China denies the claims and even the office of the US Director of National Intelligence. USA He said analysts are still examining the exact origin of the outbreak.
‘Infecting the world’
Pompeo, a former CIA chief, told ABC News that he agreed with a statement by the US intelligence community about the “broad scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was neither man-made nor genetically modified.”
But Pompeo went further than Trump, citing “significant” and “enormous” evidence that the virus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan.
“I think everyone can see now, remember, China has a history of infecting the world and operating substandard laboratories.”
Pompeo said China’s first efforts to minimize the coronavirus amounted to “a classic communist disinformation effort. That created enormous risk.”
“President Trump is very clear: We will hold those responsible accountable.”
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