China Needs To Be Accountable About Coronavirus Spread, Says Pompeo

Pompeo remarks come at a time when Trump administration has raised questions on Chinese accountability.

(Photo by Yifan Ding/Getty Images)

New Delhi: The United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday accused China of hiding facts regarding coronavirus and said that the Chinese President Xi Jinping needs to be accountable for the spread of the virus and should tell how the deadly contagion of Covid-19 spread rapidly across the globe. Pompeo remarks come at a time when Trump administration has raised questions on Chinese accountability. Experts have criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping for concealing, destroying and fabricating information about the rampant spread of COVID-19 and suppressing the data by silencing and criminalising dissent. Pompeo said, "We really need the Chinese government to open up. They say they want to cooperate. One of the best ways they could find to cooperate would be to let the world in, to let the world scientists know exactly how this came to being and exactly how this virus began to spread," while speaking to Fox News. "The leadership there knew about the virus before they took the public writ large. That's dangerous. A lot of cases, a lot of movement, a lot of travel around the world before the Chinese Communist Party came about what really transpired there. These are the kind of things that open government democracies don't do. It's why there is such risk associated with the absence of transparency," he added. Coronavirus, which first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in November, has infected over 2 million around the world. Countries have accused China of allowing coronavirus to spread to various other parts of the globe. The bug has infected more than a million people and killed more than 1,60,000 worldwide, according to the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Inputs from ANI)