OPINION:
As the Wuhan lab leak theory gains more traction in the mainstream media U.S. politicians and pundits alike have demanded, if true, the Chinese Communist Party must pay.
Former President Donald J. Trump touted the theory early last year and took a heavy hand with China, dubbing the virus the “China virus” and shutting down travel to and from the country. At the U.N. General Assembly in September, Mr. Trump told the world, “We must hold accountable the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world: China.”
Mr. Trump was derided by the mainstream media for his “racist” “anti-Asian” remarks, with countless pundits saying he was trying to blame Beijing for his own mishandling of the virus before the November election. They trusted the CCP more than their own government.
Yet it turns out Mr. Trump may have been right, and if he were still president, you better believe China would know and understand what that “accountability” would look like. President Xi Jinping bowed to many of Mr. Trump’s demands when it came to tariffs, trade and intellectual property rights. China understood that although verbose, Mr. Trump rarely bluffed and would follow through on his actions.
You can bet they don’t have the same respect for President Biden. And judging by his rash of bad foreign policy decisions — like gifting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Vladimir Putin after Russian hackers shut down a U.S. pipeline — they shouldn’t.
After all, it was only Monday that White House press secretary Jen Psaki said a U.S. investigation into the origins of the coronavirus wasn’t needed because the Biden administration was working with the World Health Organization to figure it out.
The Biden administration restored U.S. funding to the WHO immediately after coming into office. Mr. Trump cut it because of the organization’s China bias.
The WHO’s budget is about $6 billion, and the U.S. contributes more than $400 million — about ten times that of China. Yet, the WHO does China’s bidding.
In January of 2020, Chinese doctors knew of the human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus, yet on January 14th the WHO stated there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.”
Two weeks later, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with President Xi in Beijing and after the meeting praised the CCP for “setting a new standard for outbreak control,” crediting them with their “openness for sharing information.”
Dr. Tedros was late to declare the coronavirus an “emergency” and continued to laud China, declaring their actions were “slowing the spread [of coronavirus] to the rest of the world” as late as February 2020.
Dr. Tedros wasn’t so lavish in his praise of the U.S. When Mr. Trump issued the China travel ban, he said the move would “have the effect of increasing fear and stigma, with little public health benefit.” Similar to what President Biden said on the campaign trail.
Instead, it saved countless American lives.
It’s not surprising Dr. Tedros was backed by China in his bid to become WHO director-general. In one of his first actions at the helm, Dr. Tedros barred Taiwanese participation in the organization kowtowing to the CCP’s “One China” policy.
The WHO also rejected three American scientists recommended by the U.S. to investigate the origins of the coronavirus outbreak and selected another: Peter Daszak, whose nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance funded gain of function research in Wuhan. When WHO’s origin report came back in February, it determined it was “extremely unlikely” the virus leaked from a lab.
China’s bet on Dr. Tedros paid off nicely. And their gamble on Mr. Biden will, too.
It was only after news reports that the Biden administration shut down a Trump-era State Department investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, did Mr. Biden announce his own probe to be conducted by U.S. intelligence.
The investigation is clearly the Biden administration doing clean-up on aisle nine. It’s going to take 90 days, because the previous 17 months wasn’t enough time. On Wednesday, the Biden administration pleaded for the Chinese to help them, you know, because the CCP has been so helpful in the past year.
It’s pure malarkey. And the CCP is betting on it. They’re not dealing with the Trump administration, after all.
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