Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) called on China to face serious consequences over the global coronavirus outbreak, accusing the country's government of mismanaging the early days of the crisis.

In an interview with AM 970's "The Answer," King asserted that China should have done more in the early days of the outbreak to notify the World Health Organization (WHO) and bring in global health experts to manage the crisis.

"We are going to get it under control, but it China had right up front done what it should have done as responsible world citizen[s], we would not be in this position today," King said. "It's indefensible, and there have to be consequences for their terrible behavior."

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King's comments refer to various media reports alleging that Chinese scientists were ordered to stay silent about the coronavirus outbreak despite discovering cases as early as December.

Former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenBiden leads Trump by 36 points nationally among Latinos: poll GOP set to release controversial Biden report Can Donald Trump maintain new momentum until this November? MORE (D) said during last Sunday's Democratic primary debate that China's government would face "consequences" if U.S. health experts were not given access to areas of China affected most heavily by the virus.

“I insisted the moment this broke out, that we should insist on having our experts in China to see what was happening and make it clear to China there would be consequences if we did not have that access,” he said.