World Health Organization officials in China will have little choice but to “conduct a completely, completely whitewashed investigation” into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“I hope I’m wrong. I hope it’s a thorough investigation that gets fully to the bottom, but I’ve watched the Chinese Communist Party’s behavior with respect to that virus that emanated from Wuhan, and they have simply refused,” Pompeo told reporters Wednesday.
That comment casts a pall on the impending investigation, just days after a two-person WHO advance team arrived in China to prepare for a broader investigation. Both China and the WHO have faced sharp criticism from the United States and other nations, centered on the WHO’s amplification of false information provided by Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party’s lack of transparency. Still, some allies have held out hope that a credible investigation can be undertaken.
“You have to make sure that the right people get appointed to do the investigation, not just the right body,” a senior European diplomat said recently. “If we get it right, there’s a good chance it will do a proper investigation.”
Pompeo downplayed the likelihood of that prospect while faulting Beijing for the fraught state of U.S.-China relations. “You have a Chinese Communist Party that is putting freedom and democracy at risk by their expansionist, imperialist authoritarian behavior,” he said.
In addition to the coronavirus disputes, Pompeo’s team has lashed Beijing recently for the large-scale repression of Uighur Muslims, as well as China’s attempt to seize control of vast swathes of the South China Sea.
“Chinese leadership understands that it is no longer the case that it’s going to be acceptable … to allow the important commercial relationships that we have between our two countries to put the American people at risk,” he said.
