LONDON—The U.S. ambassador to London has said China had endangered the world by suppressing information about the coronavirus outbreak thus allowing it to spread far beyond the Communist regime’s borders.
“First it tried to suppress the news,” Ambassador Woody Johnson wrote in an article for The Times newspaper published on March 26, adding that Beijing had then selectively shared critical information while stonewalling international health authorities.
“Had China done the right things at the right time, more of its own population, and the rest of the world, might have been spared the most serious impact of this disease,” the ambassador wrote.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said Beijing should have acted faster to warn the world after the outbreak of the disease there.
On Monday, Trump said Asian-Americans were not responsible for spreading the disease and needed to be protected.
“When the crisis finally abates we should take stock of the outcome and evaluate the costs of this breakdown in international collaboration,” Ambassador Johnson wrote in The Times.
A group of U.S. lawmakers are calling for an international probe into how Beijing’s initial handling of the virus pandemic may have endangered the United States and the rest of the world.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) introduced a resolution on Tuesday, asking Congress to condemn the Chinese regime for its coverup of the outbreak, which “almost certainly” heightened the rapid global spread of the coronavirus, they said.
The resolution also calls on the international community to design a mechanism for the Chinese regime to deliver compensation accordingly.
