To Wisconsin state Senate President Roger Roth, it sounded like a joke when he received a prewritten piece of legislation from Chinese government officials to support their efforts fighting coronavirus in their country. It wasn’t, but the Republican lawmaker would get the last laugh as he was able to throw it back in their faces.

According to the MacIver Institute, a conservative Wisconsin think tank, the communist government of the country that is most responsible for the spread of the novel coronavirus wanted to be celebrated for its efforts in containing the disease.

“Whereas China’s action has been critical to the global fight against the epidemic, and China has adopted unprecedented and rigorous measures for disease control and prevention, including locking down Wuhan, a metropolis of 11 million people, house-to-house temperature checks, postponing the return to work after the Lunar New Year break of hundreds of millions of travelers, construction of hospitals of more than two thousand beds on green fields within days, bringing in medical teams from across the country to Hubei Province,” the potential resolution, sent to him by Chinese consulate staff in Chicago, read.

“These measures have been effective in curbing the virus from spreading to other parts of China and the world. As a result, the daily number of newly confirmed cases in China has dropped sharply to double digits, over 60,000 (to be updated) people have been cured and discharged from hospital, and the case fatality rate has remained lower than SARS, EBOLA and MERS.”

And not only that, the final point was essentially aimed at the United States and the Trump administration.

TRENDING: McConnell Makes His Decision, Announces Senate Will Hold a Vote on Any Nominee Trump Puts Forward To Replace RBG

“[T]he Wisconsin State Senate encourages the United States government to continue to follow the [World Health Organization] recommendations and work together with the WHO and other countries toward the goal of preventing the virus from taking more lives,” it read.

According to the Wisconsin Examiner, Roth received the proposed resolution from Chinese consulate staff in February but thought it was a prank, especially since it was sent from a Hotmail account.

It wasn’t, however. When the state senator received a follow-up email on March 10, his staff did some digging and discovered that the email was legit; apparently, some Chinese apparatchiks use private email because it’s quicker.

“Then I got mad, because that’s when [COVID-19] cases started cropping up here and you saw the problem exacerbated as we started to learn the truth,” Roth said, according to the Examiner.

“I just sent them back a one-word response. I said ‘nuts.’”

He didn’t just give Gen. Anthony McAuliffe a reference check, however.

Behold state Senate Resolution 7, which acknowledges “that the Communist Party of China deliberately and intentionally misled the world on the Wuhan Coronavirus and standing in solidarity with the Chinese people to condemn the actions of the Communist Party of China.”

Roth said that “a couple of days later I said that we are going to introduce a resolution, it’s just not the one that the Chinese government wants. We’re going to introduce one that speaks the truth to the lies that I believe are being told around the world, so that’s how we ended up with the resolution as it was introduced.”

Roth’s resolution makes sure to boldface, underline and italicize the fact that the original resolution he was asked to introduce was “written by the Chinese Consulate.”

It goes on to note that the Chinese consulate’s request included “propaganda and falsehoods such as: ‘China has been transparent and quick in sharing key information of the virus with the WHO and the international community, thus creating a window of opportunity for other countries to make timely response.’”

“Whereas, the Wisconsin State Senate deems it necessary and prudent to combat the spread of misinformation propagated by the Communist Party of China and the need to push back on the claims that the virus originated anywhere but China,” the resolution went on to say.

“[T]herefore, be it Resolved by the senate, That the Wisconsin Senate acknowledges that the Communist Party of China has deliberately and intentionally misled the world, suppressed vital information on the statistics and spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus both domestically and abroad, allowed millions of individuals to travel outside of the province and country despite clear warnings that the virus could be transmitted person-to-person, and engaged in active suppression and persecution of individuals looking to truthfully discuss information related to the Coronavirus, which has led to a global pandemic the likes of which has not been seen for generations.”

Wisconsin Resolution by The Western Journal on Scribd

The initial email from the Chinese consulate to Roth, according to the MacIver Institute, said the resolution China wanted him to pass “would be a great moral support to the Chinese people combating the disease.” Which is incorrect; it would have been of great moral support to the Chinese government, which was busy combating the truth. What it ended up with was something significantly different than that.

And, just in case you needed Roth to be clear, he noted that “on several occasions, I make the distinction between the Chinese people and their oppressive government. I think it’s important that people know that. People are absolutely wrong and they are misinformed if they are taking their frustrations out on Chinese Americans or Asian Americans.

“I want to stand in solidarity with the Chinese people to be able to live in freedom.”

At the moment, the resolution is available for scheduling.

Roth said he hopes the resolution will, in some small way, encourage governments to act swiftly when serious illnesses like the coronavirus occur. Otherwise, he said, we’ll see more deadly pandemics.

“That’s really at the crux of this here,” he said. “It’s stuff for us to reassess and learn from because … if that’s the case, we have to make sure that when these things begin that nations handle them responsibly.”

“I think this is that moment now, where the Communist Party of China is stripped naked, and everyone can realize what they are willing to do to their own people,” Roth added. “And just like Chernobyl led to the downfall of Communist Russia, my hope is that this will begin to bring an end to the Communist Party of China, so that the great people of China can rise and live in freedom and liberty like we do here in the west.”

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.