September 21, 2020
Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee released their final report on how the CCP handled the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China - uncovering "even more disturbing evidence about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) coverup and WHO Director General Tedros’s gross mishandling of the virus that allowed it to turn into a deadly pandemic."
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) who led the investigation wrote in the report, released on Monday:
It is crystal clear that had the CCP been transparent, and had the head of the WHO cared more about global health than appeasing the CCP, lives could have been spared and widespread economic devastation could have been mitigated. Revealing the truth is just the first step; we must hold both the CCP and WHO Director General Tedros accountable for the suffering they have allowed the world to endure.
According to Breitbart News' Kristina Wong, the report follows an interim report issued in June - and "contains more details and new information about how the CCP punished a nurse from speaking out about the virus early on, forced American companies in China to produce personal protective equipment (PPE) for its citizens only, instructed Chinese companies around the world to begin buying up critical supplies, and threatened other countries economically if they spoke out against China."
During the early stages of the pandemic, the CCP began hoarding PPE, including masks, gowns and gloves - buying them on the international market and shipping them to China, while Chinese officials also nationalized the supply chains and manufacturing capacity of US companies operating in China, forcing companies such as General Motors and 3M to produce medical supplies for domestic use while denying export licenses.
McCaul's committee obtained a discipline notice for nurse Li Min of the eastern city of Taizhou, who discussed the virus with classmates and family via WeChat.
The discipline notice was issued as World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was to arrive in Beijing to discuss COVID-19 with Chinese President and CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. On January 29, 2020, Tedros praised the CCP’s response to the virus, calling it “very impressive, and beyond words” and that the CCP was “actually setting a new standard for outbreak response.” -Breitbart News
Meanwhile, China threatened to cut off critical supplies, and used their leverage as a manufacturer to threaten countries calling for an international investigation into the CCP's actions regarding the outbreak.
Notably, the report mentions an April threat China issued to Australia if they didn't halt all investigations related to the CCP's handling of the virus. According to the report, the Chinese Ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, threatened a boycott of Australian goods while speaking with Financial Review.
"It is up to the people to decide. Maybe the ordinary people will say ‘Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?" he said, adding "The proposition is a kind of teaming up with those forces in Washington and to launch a kind of political campaign against China."
