Secretary of State Antony Blinken will not say what the Biden administration will do to hold China accountable for denying the United States and the international community access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the hunt for the origins of COVID-19.
During a hearing in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday, Rep. Lee Zeldin, a New York Republican, asked Blinken what the U.S. “would actually do of substance” to “pressure China to give access to the lab” if China denies access to it, and Blinken contended that the People’s Republic of China has refused to be transparent since the start of the pandemic, but declined to commit to any specific action to push China into granting access. This answer came a day after the airing of an interview on HBO where the top Biden diplomat skipped an opportunity to lay out if and how the U.S. would punish China over its intransigence in assisting investigations.
