Republican U.S Congressman, Brian Mast is seeking to punish the People’s Republic of China for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by introducing a measure to permanently withhold payments from the U.S. and other countries on debts owed to them.
The congressman is set to roll out legislation this week to this effect, on the one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) designating the novel coronavirus a global pandemic.
Mast’s legislation claims that the Chinese Communist Party “actively engaged in a cover-up designed to obfuscate data and hide relevant public health information,” which continues to “limit efforts to identify the original source of COVID-19.”
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The measure states that the outbreak of COVID-19 is “a direct result” of China’s “appalling record of human rights abuses, including its suppression of the freedom of expression, as well as its aggressive domestic and global propaganda campaign.”
“The People’s Republic of China should be held accountable for its handling of the COVID-10,” the legislation states. “The United States and other countries should permanently withhold payments on debts owed to the People’s Republic of China in amounts equal to the public costs incurred by such countries relating to COVID-19.”
Mr. Mast of Florida told Fox News that the China’s total lack of transparency and mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, millions of jobs, and left untold economic destruction in the United States.
“Congress must put America first and hold China accountable for their cover-up by forcing them to pay back the taxpayer dollars that have been spent as a result,” he said.
According to Mast’s office, as of November 2020, China owned $1.063 trillion of the total outstanding U.S. government debt issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s, R.-Tenn., plan last year to press China to waive debt payments was met with concern from some on Wall Street, including Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, who said withholding debt payments could spark a capital war.
Nearly 118 million people around the world have become infected with COVID-19 and more than 2.6 million people have died.
In the United States, 29.15 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19, and more than 529,000 Americans have died.
House Republicans last year accused China of ignoring rules requiring governments to report any information of a new SARS-like virus to the WHO within 24 hours.
In 2005, following the SARS outbreak, the WHO had updated the International Health Regulations (IHR), which were first adopted by the Health Assembly in 1969, acknowledging that the organization has “a central and historic responsibility” to manage “the control of the international spread of disease.”
According to Articles 6 and 7 of the revised IHR, members are obligated to provide the organization with all relevant public health information, including lab results, “within 24 hours of assessment … of all events which may constitute a public health emergency of international concern.” The document later cites SARS as an example.
Reports show that the first case of the virus in China came in November 2019, but the first human-to-human transmission of the virus was reported by Wuhan doctors on Dec. 8, 2019 and China failed to inform the WHO of the outbreak until Dec. 31, 2019.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
