The Chinese government’s dishonesty regarding the coronavirus outbreak led to the loss of ten million jobs over a two-week period, said former Rep. Thad McCotter (R-MI), offering his remarks on Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Ed Martin.

McCotter remarked, “Ten million people in two weeks, all because the Communist Party of China was not straight with the rest of the world, was concerned about covering their own sorry behinds rather than having the truth of the virus get out so people could deal with it and quell it in its tracks.”

Mcotter stated, “We’re talking about the protection of American strategic interests, the preservation of lives and livelihood against enemies, the United States. And one of the things that we have to understand is communist China believes that it is a rival model of governance to the United States and to our Western and free world allies.”

American news media outlets furthering Chinese propaganda harm efforts to control the viral pandemic, stated McCotter.

“What they’re doing now by rewriting history with a complicit American media to do it, is they’re trying to tell the world that somehow they’ve curtailed the virus, pretending they didn’t start it, pretending that somehow they’re spreading aid around the world to try to help others to fight, and that they’re they’re the good guy,” McCotter said. “It is despicable to watch, and it should fall under its own weight, except we have a lot of American media trying to prop up that duplicitous narrative. It is unfortunate and the world is watching at the very same time. That is galling to anybody who cares about the truth and about the perpetuation of liberty throughout the rest of the world.”

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McCotter likened contemporary news media alignment with the Chinese government to Walter Duranty’s 1930s disinformation campaign –published in the New York Times — in support of the Soviet Union’s forced famines.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the people today dealing with communist China are doing the same thing [as Walter Duranty], and many of them are doing it because of Trump derangement syndrome, where the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and because communist China is trying to make their numbers look better [with] the coronavirus,” McCotter observed. “It makes President Trump look bad, so the media parrots it.”

McCotter noted that many American companies and industries are financially invested in China, causing them to lobby on behalf of Chinese interests and against America’s national interest. He recalled China’s leveraging of its purchased political influence in America in the NBA, Hollywood, and news media.

Misinformation from the Chinese state compromises global efforts to control the coronavirus’ spread, determined McCotter.

“We’re seeing the lack of information … honesty, and transparency regarding the true data of cases and the true death toll in communist China,” McCotter stated. “It is causing problems for people all around the world because we don’t have accurate data to make projections as to the strength and virulence of this disease.”

McCotter continued, “By trying to cover it up and rewrite history — which is something communists are very happy to do — they’re doing a great disservice to the world, putting more people’s lives at risk after they’ve already put people’s lives at risk in their initial cover-up.”

McCotter reflected on the Tienanmen Square massacre.

“They killed my generation — Generation X — on the streets of Tiananmen Square,” stated McCotter. “What did you expect them to do? They killed their own citizens to retain power.” Predictions of Chinese liberalization through economic development pushed by the “uniparty in Washington” had not come to pass, he noted.

Many news media outlets are now “apologizing for the communist regime,” added McCotter, “and now you have people who are in business with them.”

The U.S. must decouple its economy from China, maintained McCotter, describing the coronavirus pandemic as a potential inflection point in public sentiment towards the one-party state.

“We have to decouple the economies,” concluded McCotter. “We’re already seeing the American people finally get it. Now they’re going to hold their elected officials’ and the bureaucrats’ and private business’ feet to the fire. They’re seeing 10 million people have been unemployed within two weeks because of a virus the Communist Party of China tried to cover up.”

Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.

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