Pillsbury: China lied about human-to-human transfer of coronavirus
China accused of COVID-19 disinformation campaign; reaction from Hudson Institute's Dr. Michael Pillsbury.
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Hudson Institute senior fellow Dr. Michael Pillsbury joined "The Story with Martha MacCallum" Wednesday to discuss a possible Chinese disinformation campaign surrounding the coronavirus and the country's treatment of doctors who have tried to speak out.
"Whenever you become a China expert, the first thing you're taught is about Chinese belief in the power of deception, that nobody ever tells the truth," Pillsbury said. "Everything is done for a principle, a larger goal. And that seems to be what's going on.
"[To the Chinese government] These doctors got in the way," Pillsbury went on. "They think because they're medically trained, maybe they respond to Western values. They think telling the truth will help the whole world to combat the virus better. There are several specific things that we know know China is lying about."
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Pillsbury cited the case of Ai Fen, the head of the emergency department of Wuhan Central Hospital who first raised the alarm over the coronavirus outbreak and has reportedly disappeared.
Fen hasn't been seen for days and some fear she could be the latest high-profile critic of Beijing's handling of COVID-19 to disappear without a trace, "60 Minutes Australia" reported.
In a classified report sent to the White House, U.S. intelligence officials said that China's public record of COVID-19 infections was deliberately deceptive and incomplete.
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Pillsbury says China may have already allowed their live animal markets, where the virus alledgedly began to reopen.
"In one case, The Daily Mail reporter, went in and took pictures of the of these live markets. That seems to be the place where the virus transfer from humans to animals and humans takes place," Pillsbury said. "So they're open, according to the reporters who took the photos. This is really terrible."
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Pillsbury went on to say America is both "vulnerable" to China and dependent on Beijing for proper information about the outbreak.
"Dr. Fauci has talked about how [often] he's on the phone with China over the last two months. A lot of the data we get for the models that Deborah Birx has been talking about comes from China," Pillsbury said. "So we're very vulnerable to what they may be doing."
Fox News' Barnini Chakraborty contributed to this report.
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