It’s not just the Trump administration that wants to hold China accountable.
Italian politician Matteo Salvini, leader of the largest opposition party in the Italian government, has demanded that China be held responsible for lying to the World Health Organization and bringing the world to its knees over Coronavirus.
“If China knew of the outbreak way before they told WHO and covered up things, this is a crime against humanity,” said Salvini, on the floor of the Italian Senate.
Italy has recently surpassed China as the country hardest hit by Coronavirus–alarming especially considering how China’s population is many times larger than Italy’s.
That’s left many Italians–as well as their leaders–seething with anger over claims that China lied about both the origins and pandemic threat of Coronavirus, even as they were watching the beginnings of the crisis unfold.
Italian politicians will find a strong ally in the Trump Administration–which has also vowed to hold China responsible.
“We’ve wanted to work with the Chinese Communist Party throughout this crisis – this crisis that began in Wuhan, China,” said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “We tried – you’ll remember – from the opening days to get our scientists our experts on the ground there so that we could begin to assist in the global response to what began there in China, but we weren’t able to do that. The Chinese Communist Party wouldn’t permit that to happen.”
“You’ll recall, too, at the beginning of this, when it was clear that this was an issue, China knew about it, they were the first country to know about the risk to the world from this virus, and they repeatedly delayed sharing that information with the globe,” Pompeo continued.
He added: “There was a lot of discussion today amongst the G7 about the intentional disinformation campaign that China has been and continues to be engaged in. You see it. You see it in the social media. You see it in remarks from senior people inside the Chinese Communist Party talking about whether this was a U.S. – U.S. brought to China. I mean, this is crazy talk. And every member of the G7 today saw that – this disinformation campaign. China now making small sales of product around the world and claiming that they are now the white hat in what has taken place here.”