The United States is doing a “very serious”investigation against China, President Donald Trump said, indicating hisadministration is looking at a lot more money as compensation from Beijing thaneuro 130 billion being sought by Germany.
Germany is looking at things and we’re looking at things andwe’re talking about a lot more money than Germany is talking about, Trump toldreporters at his White House news conference Monday.
The deadly virus, which originated in China in mid-Novemberhas so far killed more than two lakh people and infected over 30 lakh globally.The largest number of them are in the US: more than 56,000 deaths and over 10lakh infections.
After the US, Europe has been the worst hit by the virus. InIndia, mainly because of the early and aggressive preventive measures, thefatalities have remained low at 886 and infections at 28,000.
Leaders of these countries including the US, the UK andGermany increasingly believe that the unfortunate deaths of so many people anddestruction of the global economy could have been avoided, if China had showntransparency and shared the information about the virus in its early phases.
As such many countries have started talking about claimingcompensation from China.
Trump, during the Rose Garden press conference, was askedabout Germany planning to send a bill to China for euro 130 billion for thedamages. Would your administration look at doing the same?
Well, we can do something much easier than that. We haveways of doing things a lot easier than that, Trump replied. We haven’t determinedthe final amount yet, but “it is very substantial”.
If you look at the world, I mean, this is a worldwidedamage. This is a damage to the US but this is a damage to the world, said theUS president.
Trump said there are “a lot of ways” one can holdChina accountable for the spread of the virus. We’re doing very seriousinvestigations, as you probably know. We are not happy with China, he said.
We are not happy with that whole situation because webelieve it could’ve been stopped at the source. It could’ve been stoppedquickly and it wouldn’t have spread all over the world. And we think thatshould have happened. So, we’ll let you know at the appropriate time, but weare doing serious investigations, Trump said.
In recent weeks, there has been an increasing supporttowards the move to hold China accountable.
China has been untruthful and unforthcoming since thebeginning of this pandemic. We must hold them accountable for this cover up,Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith said in a tweet.
On Monday, Congressman Earl L. “Buddy” Cartersigned on to a resolution establishing a bicameral, bipartisan joint selectcommittee to investigate the origins of and China’s handling of the 2019 novelcoronavirus.
“We know China has lied and covered up importantinformation about COVID-19 since the beginning,” said Carter.
“Now, thousands of Americans have died, people havelost their jobs and the world has been turned upside down. Congress has theresponsibility to investigate the origins of the virus and the extent ofChina’s deception. The American people have been devastated by this disease andthey deserve answers. We should approve this resolution without delay and getto work as soon as possible,” he said.
In a related development, Congressmen Alex X. Mooney andMatt Gaetz, Senator Martha McSally and a bicameral coalition of over 50 otherlawmakers sent a letter to House and Senate leadership requesting that no COVID-19relief funds be given to China’s state-run bio-agent laboratory, the WuhanInstitute of Virology (WIV).
After the damage the coronavirus has inflicted upon theworld, US taxpayer dollars should no longer be sent to labs we know conductsloppy research and dangerous experiments. I commend President Trump’s responseto this invisible enemy and his determination to hold China accountable for itsactions, Mooney said.
Reports indicate that for years WIV has received taxpayerdollars from the US National Institutes of Health for secretive and dangerouslaboratory research on coronavirus-infected bats.