Washington – A coalition of 18 state prosecutors, identified as the Republican Party, the same as US President Donald Trump, asked Congress on Monday to investigate China for allegedly “hiding” information about the “seriousness” of COVID-19 and storing at the same time personal protective equipment to deal with the disease.
In a letter to congressional leaders, including Speaker of the House of Representatives Democrat Nancy Pelosi and Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, prosecutors say the Chinese government, aided by the World Organization of the Salud, “seems to have intentionally misled the world in recent months.”
“Recent reports suggest that the Chinese Communist government purposely concealed information about the severity of the virus, while storing personal protective equipment,” reads the letter, backed by attorneys general from South Carolina, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
RELATED
State attorneys general also support the thesis of the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, that there was an effort to hide information.
Pompeo recently said in an interview with ABC News television that the United States government has “a tremendous amount of evidence” that the new coronavirus originated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, something that Beijing denies.
“The Chinese Communist Party continues to block access (to its laboratories) to the western world, to the best scientists in the world, to find out what exactly happened,” said the head of US diplomacy.
In this context, prosecutors are holding China accountable “for the devastation and destruction caused by COVID-19,” arguing that “tens of thousands have died from the virus and millions have lost their jobs.”
In addition, they complain that “countless companies, both large and small, will disappear,” while states will have to deal “with difficult economic decisions in the coming years.”
On April 21, Missouri sued the Government of China, the Chinese Communist Party and officials and institutions of that country for their action against the coronavirus, which, he said, “has led to loss of life” in this state.
In a statement posted on its website, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt reported this court action, considering that the defendants’ actions, which he claims included hiding data and denying the contagious nature of the coronavirus, did not It only led to loss of life, but also serious economic consequences.
While Washington claims that the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory, some Chinese authorities have promoted the theory that US soldiers introduced the disease during their participation in the World Military Games in Wuhan last October, something that the US denies.
