The Chinese Communist Party "put countless lives at risk" through its lack of transparency concerning the novel coronavirus, and the pandemic will be "repeatable" if China is not transparent, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is warning.
"Instead of trying to do the work to suppress the virus, which is what the world demanded, the Chinese Communist Party didn't get it right and put countless lives at risk as a result of that," Pompeo told Fox News' "Hannity" Wednesday night.
The Chinese government, he added, "wasted valuable days at the front end" back in November when the virus was first discovered by creating a "disinformation campaign."
"They haven't been sufficiently transparent and the risk you find [is] if we don't get this right, if we don't get to the bottom of this, this could be something that is repeatable," Pompeo said. "Maybe not in this form, maybe not in this way, but transparency matters."
The secretary of state earlier this week called on Politburo member Yang Jiechi to push back on a Twitter comment from Lijian Zhao, the deputy director-general for the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Information Department, who claimed that the U.S. military might be responsible for the coronavirus.
Pompeo said Wednesday he will use his position to push for information on the virus.
"It's important as America's most senior diplomat, we have an obligation to make sure we try and get this information from the Chinese Communist Party so we can help our medical professionals here in the United States, get this right and save lives for Americans and people all across the world," he said.
He also said the State Department has just learned about 200 Americans are stuck in Peru after the government there closed its borders.
President Donald Trump, he added, "has made clear that we are going to do everything we can to get every American home safely."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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