Rep. Devin Nunes on China's efforts to shift the narrative on coronavirus pandemic
The coronavirus originated in China, Beijing covered it up and caused a worldwide panic, says California Congressman Devin Nunes, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Rep. Devin Nunes said on Thursday that after the House Intelligence Committee Republican’s long investigation into China, it is clear that they are an authoritarian regime that “cannot be trusted.”
The Republican California lawmaker told “Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream” that the United States needs important information from China to support the global effort to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
“It would be nice to have good data about how they tested what were the symptoms, what are the different age groups and what were the symptoms that they came up with; what were the best treatments? These are all things you’re are not seeing,” Nunes said.
Nunes continued, “What you are seeing, as Secretary Pompeo said, is you’re seeing them blame the U.S. Army.”
Nunes said that China’s handling of the outbreak is “unacceptable” and claimed that the coronavirus originated there.
“They covered it up and they have caused a worldwide panic.”
Nunes’ comments came after Chinese threats to disrupt the supply of pharmaceutical products the communist nation exports to the United States. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Rep Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., introduced a bill Wednesday to cut U.S. reliance on pharmaceutical products coming from China.
"The Chinese Communist Party threatened to cut off America’s access to vital drugs in the midst of a pandemic caused by its own failures," Cotton said in a statement announcing the bill. "It’s time to pull America’s supply chains for life-saving medicine out of China and make the CCP pay for contributing to this global emergency."
A release announcing the bill says it would task an FDA registry with tracking drug ingredients, ban the federal government from buying drugs with a supply chain that originates in China, require drugs to be labeled with the name of the country where they came from and provide benefits to manufacturers who make their drugs or medical equipment in the U.S. The bill would go into effect in 2022.
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Nunes predicted that many countries will want to break the supply chain that has been centered in China.
“We’re not going to want to have to rely on China for anything that is paramount for the survival of our people or to our economy.”
Nunes said that the reorientation of the supply chain from China to the U.S. has already started with Trump’s trade sanctions and tariffs against them.
Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.
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