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(CNN) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday intensified administration claims that China made efforts to hide the extent of the spread of the coronavirus, including hiding gravity while storing medical supplies.
“You have the correct data,” Pompeo told ABC’s “This Week” when asked if China intentionally stored medical supplies in early January while hiding the severity of Covid-19. “We can confirm that the Chinese Communist Party did everything possible to ensure that the world did not learn in time about what was happening.”
Pompeo’s comments come as the Trump administration is formulating a long-term plan to punish China on multiple fronts for the coronavirus pandemic, injecting a new and spiteful element into a critical relationship that is already in a steep decline.
Multiple sources within the administration say there is an appetite to use various tools, including sanctions, canceling America’s debt obligations and crafting new trade policies, to make China and everyone else clear, where they feel the responsibility relapses.
While there are serious questions about China’s transparency, the Trump administration has stepped up its efforts to blame China for the global spread of the virus as criticism of its own handling of the pandemic grows. President Donald Trump repeatedly downplayed the threat of the new coronavirus and suggested that it would not be a problem for the US. USA At a time when it was clearly spreading throughout the world. Trump also repeatedly showered Chinese President Xi Jinping with praise for his handling of the crisis in trying to safeguard a trade deal with the Chinese.
On Sunday, Pompeo mentioned that some efforts made by the Chinese Communist Party were not seen, but others were public, such as not allowing US medical professionals. USA Enter the laboratories in Wuhan, the city where the virus originated, and silence the scientists.
“President Trump is very clear, we will hold those responsible accountable and we will do it on our own schedule,” Pompeo said.
Trump administration officials have been pressuring the U.S. intelligence community to pinpoint the exact origins of the coronavirus outbreak for an unproven theory that the pandemic started due to a laboratory accident in China, multiple said. sources to CNN. On Thursday, the president contradicted the intelligence community and said he has seen evidence that gives him a “high degree of confidence.” Covid-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, but declined to provide details to back up its claim.
When asked about the belief Trump expressed and whether he had seen evidence supporting that claim, Pompeo said: “There is enormous evidence that this is where this started.”
“We have said from the beginning that it was a virus that originated in Wuhan, China. We are very sorry for that from the outside, but I think everyone 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 agrees with the broad scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was neither man-made nor genetically modified.”
When asked about that conclusion Sunday, Pompeo said he agreed. Pompeo said he has “no reason not to believe” in the intelligence community, adding: “I have seen your analysis. I have seen the summary you saw that was published publicly. I have no reason to doubt that this is accurate. ” “
Although Pompeo also echoed Trump’s statement last week that he has seen evidence linking the outbreak to the Wuhan lab, contradicting the statement by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. That statement said US intelligence was examining “rigorously” whether the outbreak was “through contact with infected animals or was the result of a laboratory accident in Wuhan.”
Pompeo added that China “behaved as authoritarian regimes do, tried to hide and hide, and confused and used the World Health Organization as a tool to do the same.”
“This is the kind of thing that has brought about this huge crisis and huge loss of life and tremendous economic loss worldwide,” he said. “Australians agree with that, they hear Europeans start to say the same thing, and I think the whole world is united in understanding that China brought this virus to the world.”
CNN reported last month that the US government. USA He was investigating the theory that the virus originated in the laboratory but had not been able to corroborate it yet. In April, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the weight of the evidence suggests the virus was naturally occurring.
When asked if China intentionally released the virus or if it was an accident, Pompeo declined to comment.
“I have nothing to say about it. I think there is a lot to know, but I can say this. We have done our best to try to answer all those questions. We tried to put a team there, the WHO (World Health Organization ) tried to get a team there, and failed. No one has been allowed to enter this laboratory or any of the other laboratories … this is an ongoing challenge. We still have to enter there. We still do not have the virus samples what do we need “.
The clash between the United States and China is brewing amid growing suspicions within the administration about China’s growing 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 Wuhan outbreak and whether its autocratic system fostered an attempt to cover it up. The United States is not the only nation that wants answers in the midst of a pandemic that has devastated the global economy and has cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
In response to mounting pressure, China has launched a propaganda effort to distract itself from its own guilt, including blaming US soldiers for importing the pathogen in comments that angered Trump. On Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang accused “American politicians” of telling blatant lies about the pandemic.
“They have only one goal: to try to shirk responsibility for their own epidemic and prevent and control measures and divert public attention,” he said.
On Wednesday, China’s state news agency Xinhua released an animated video mocking the United States’ response to the coronavirus pandemic, as it described China’s response in a flattering way.
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