Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hammered the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) this week for its alleged cover-up of the coronavirus pandemic, saying that China destroyed samples of the virus and still has not shared virus samples from inside the nation.

“We strongly believe that the Chinese Communist Party did not report the outbreak of the new coronavirus in a timely fashion to the World Health Organization,” Pompeo told reporters. “Even after the CCP did notify the WHO of the coronavirus outbreak, China didn’t share all of the information it had.”

“Instead, it covered up how dangerous the disease is. It didn’t report sustained human-to-human transmission for a month until it was in every province inside of China. It censored those who tried to warn the world, it ordered a halt to testing of new samples, and it destroyed existing samples,” Pompeo continued. “The CCP still has not shared the virus sample from inside of China with the outside world, making it impossible to track the disease’s evolution.”

Pompeo then highlighted how China was exploiting the pandemic to increase its geopolitical power.

“I want to highlight two ways in which the Chinese Communist Party is exploiting the world’s focus on COVID-19 crisis by continuing its provocative behavior,” Pompeo said. “The Chinese Communist Party is exerting military pressure on Taiwan and coercing its neighbors in the South China Sea, even going so far as to sink a Vietnamese fishing vessel.”

“Seeking to transfer responsibility or to deny access to the world so that the world can figure out what’s going on – you have to remember, these labs are still open inside of China, these labs that contain complex pathogens that were being studied,” Pompeo continued. “It’s not just the Wuhan Institute of Virology. There are multiple labs inside of China that are handling these things. It’s important that those materials are being handled in a safe and secure way such that there isn’t accidental release.”

“We have to make sure that the Chinese Government is handling those materials in an appropriate way, not only in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, but elsewhere. So, this is an ongoing obligation that the Chinese Government has, as well as an ongoing obligation of the World Health Organization that has responsibility for compliance with the rules,” Pompeo added. “I hope I didn’t bore you with them, but they’re important to understand that there are a set of global regulations that the Chinese Communist Party signed up for. These aren’t American rules we apply, these are rules that the Chinese Government signed up for, and the World Health Organization has a continuing obligation – not just one from back in December, but a continuing obligation to make sure that those rules are being complied with today in a way that protects us not only from the ongoing pandemic but a future one as well.”

WATCH:

We strongly believe that #China didn’t report the outbreak of the new #coronavirus in a timely fashion to the @WHO. Even after the CCP did notify the WHO of the coronavirus outbreak, China didn’t share all of the information it had. pic.twitter.com/D0tz1nbJRZ — Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) April 23, 2020

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