According to the latest data from the U.S. Treasury Department, the United States owes nearly $1.08 trillion to Mainland China. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) argues China should consider waiving some of that debt given the communist nation’s role in the spread of the COVID-19/coronavirus.

During an interview that aired on Huntsville, AL radio WVNN’s “The Jeff Poor Show,” when asked, Blackburn explained ways to hold China accountable for the global pandemic, noting her effort to officially recognize China’s role and the debtor relationship the United States has with China.

“Indeed there is,” Blackburn replied. “One of the things is my Senate Resolution 553, which it expresses the sense of the Senate — that we know this came from Wuhan, China, and that they hid the information and were not transparent, that they blocked the World Health Organization and the CDC from coming into help. They tried to blame it on the U.S. military. And we hold them accountable.”

For the losses accrued from the pandemic, Blackburn called on China to forgive a portion of the debt owed to them.

“I will tell you I think we need to look at the fact that China owns over a trillion dollars of our debt,” she said. “They like investing in us. Why do they like that? Because we are a safe debt for them — a safe place for them to put their money. And knowing that they have made a global pandemic worse than it ever would have been because of their action — they should waive some of our debt. They have caused us a tremendous amount of loss of life, loss of businesses, suffering, inconvenience, shutting down our economy.”

Another component the Tennessee Republican argued for on the accountability front was to bring elements of manufacturing back from China to the United States.

“These are all things that we should take into consideration — bringing our manufacturing back, not only our pharmaceutical manufacturing — I was working with one of my colleagues today,” Blackburn explained. “There are other things we can bring back and put America back in the manufacturing business.”

“I told the Vice President the other night — I said, ‘Look, we should take my bill and some others that are focused on manufacturing and call it the MAMA Act — Make America Manufacture Again,'” she said. “And bring these jobs back to U.S. shores. I think we can do that. And I’ll tell you this — I think the American people want to see us do this.”

Blackburn dismissed the notion that U.S. debt to China gave it leverage over the United States.

“I don’t think it gives them any leverage against us because they want us to continue to be a safe place for them to put their money,” she said. “What it does do is point out the fact that China caused this. We have borrowed $2 trillion to stabilize our economy. China will turn around and buy that debt. They’ll buy that. That’s where they’ll park their money. They’ll buy those bonds. They’re going to end up enriching themselves through a problem that they caused.”

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