House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans released a report saying the Chinese Communist Party “bears overwhelming responsibility” for the coronavirus outbreak becoming a pandemic following efforts to conceal “the spread and novel nature” of the disease.
The 50-page report, released Monday following a monthslong investigation by GOP members in the Democrat-led House, also highlighted China’s “failures to share accurate information” despite its obligations under international laws like the International Health Regulations and its “suppression of voices seeking to warn the world.” GOP investigators concluded senior party leaders, including Xi Jinping, were aware a pandemic was underway weeks before the public was warned.
The congressional inquiry led by Rep. Michael McCaul, the GOP’s ranking member and chairman of the House’s China task force, also called for reforms at the World Health Organization and the firing of its leader as part of an effort to prevent another pandemic.
The WHO “enabled the CCP cover-up … while at the same time praising the CCP’s response,” according to GOP investigators, who also determined “the COVID-19 global pandemic could have been prevented if the CCP acted in a transparent and responsible manner.”
The congressional report put forth three major recommendations to stop future pandemics: new WHO leadership, an international investigation by the United States and allies into the coronavirus outbreak, and IHR reforms.
“It’s become crystal clear the Chinese Communist Party’s cover-up of the coronavirus, especially in the early days of the outbreak, played a significant role in turning what could have been a local epidemic into a global pandemic,” McCaul told the Washington Examiner. “And unfortunately, the World Health Organization under the leadership of Director-General Tedros [Adhanom Ghebreyesus] only exacerbated the problem by repeatedly ignoring warnings about the severity of the virus, including from their own health experts, while at the same time parroting the CCP’s propaganda without independently confirming their claims.”
McCaul called this “a failure of monumental proportions” and said “it is imperative that we uncover the truth so we can set up future safeguards to prevent this from happening yet again.”
As of Monday morning, there have been more than 7.9 million COVID-19 cases and more than 433,000 global deaths attributed to the coronavirus, including more than 115,000 deaths in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University. Much of the U.S. has begun to reopen slowly following months of economically damaging lockdowns aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
The report said: “It is clear Director-General Tedros seriously erred in his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic,” and “there is an established pattern of poor decision making and political deference that has weakened the ability of the WHO to fulfill its mandate.” The GOP said Tedros should be replaced in part because he “praised the CCP’s deplorable actions” and “responded to Taiwan’s criticism by accusing their government of supporting racists.” The report also concluded that Tedros likely delayed declaring the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern for political rather than medical reasons.
There’s evidence China covered up the coronavirus’s spread, muzzled whistleblowers, intimidated doctors, misled the WHO, and blocked outside health experts. China knew by late 2019 that human-to-human transmission was occurring, but on Jan. 14, the WHO tweeted: “Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.”
As Tedros and the WHO publicly praised China’s response, internal recordings show WHO leaders privately complained about China’s opacity.
The U.S. intelligence community believes the Chinese Communist Party downplayed the outbreak and that China continues to mislead the world about infections and deaths.
Tedros has consistently defended the WHO’s response, including during his opening speech to the World Health Assembly last month.
“WHO sounded the alarm early, and we sounded it often,” Tedros said, adding, “We have provided technical guidance and strategic advice based on the latest science and experience. … We have fought the infodemic, combating myths with reliable information.”
But Tedros acknowledged: “We all have lessons to learn from the pandemic.”
China has repeatedly denied covering up the coronavirus outbreak, claiming this month that such claims were the “politicization” of a pandemic and a “calculated slur.”
The congressional investigators said any international investigation “should seek to establish a definitive account of the origins of SARS-CoV-2, its appearance in humans, efforts by the CCP to conceal relevant scientific and health information about the outbreak, the effect of the CCP’s cover-up on the actions of the WHO, the impact of the WHO’s parroting of CCP propaganda, and the influence of the CCP’s cover-up on the global response.”
The report also said China’s 2003 failure to alert the world properly to the SARS outbreak foreshadowed its handling of the coronavirus. The WHO’s members unanimously revised the IHR in 2005 — a decision stemming from China mishandling its SARS response too. China detected the unknown SARS-like coronavirus late last year, but Beijing failed to report it.
The new report pointed out China never alerted the WHO of the outbreak, only acknowledging it after the WHO found doctors posting about cases online at the end of 2019. McCaul’s office concluded China violated IHR rules on information sharing.
The new report said President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should “use the voice, vote, and influence” of the U.S. to “seek additional IHR reforms, including around the information Member States are required to provide, WHO’s obligations to investigate unofficial reports concerning health events and notify Member States, and the process for declaring a public health emergency of international concern.”
Trump declared a temporary freeze on U.S. funding to the WHO this year, threatening a “permanent” halt without “substantive improvements” to WHO.
The new report also included: a timeline of the Chinese Communist Party’s cover-up and WHO’s missteps, an examination of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a reminder that the CCP still hasn’t provided lab samples or site access, and a recounting of China’s coronavirus disinformation campaign.
“We have very clear-cut evidence that they deliberately and repeatedly violated International Health Regulations specifically to cover up what was going on,” a committee aide told the Washington Examiner, adding that China “knew they had information that they were legally bound to report to the World Health Organization — and simply chose not to.”
Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, did not immediately return the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
“The failures of the CCP to protect their citizens and fulfill their obligations under international law have resulted in disappeared journalists, a world seized by a public health emergency, and hundreds of thousands of dead,” the new report concluded. “It is incumbent upon the United States and like-minded WHO Member States to ensure the accountability and reforms necessary to prevent the CCP’s malfeasance from giving rise to a third pandemic during the 21st century.”
