World must punish China for Covid damage, says Mike Pompeo

On the eve of the G7 summit, Joe Biden has been urged to form a global coalition to punish China for its handling of the pandemic.

US President Joe Biden has been urged to form a global coalition to punish China for its handling of the pandemic.

Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state, said Biden should assemble a coalition of democracies to “persuade China to curb its dangerous viral research activities, co-operate with the investigation of the coronavirus’s origins and, over time, pay some measure of the pandemic’s damages to other nations”, Pompeo said in an opinion piece for The Washington Post.

The call came on the eve of Biden’s first overseas trip to Europe for discussions with allies at the G7 in Cornwall, then at Nato and the EU in Brussels.

At the end of last month Biden gave the US intelligence agencies 90 days to intensify efforts to study the origins of the coronavirus amid growing suspicion that it could have come from a Wuhan laboratory and called for China to fully participate in an investigation.

Last week Anthony Fauci, the chief White House adviser on the pandemic, called on Beijing to release the medical records of several people whose mysterious illness in autumn 2019 could provide vital clues as to whether the virus emerged from a laboratory leak.

Pompeo, 57, who was secretary of state under Trump, is thought to be preparing to run for the presidency in 2024. He said that Biden, 78, had a “responsibility” to lead a “fair, effective international response” against China - the type of multilateral collaboration that was eschewed by the Trump administration - but added that he “shows little sign of rising to this task”.

“China Communist Party (CCP) malfeasance sped the coronavirus into an unsuspecting world,” Pompeo said. “An international coalition could impose heavy costs on CCP leaders and China’s economic activities.”

He said that if China escaped punishment it would “grow ever bolder”.

Biden has not said whether the US would impose penalties on China if it was found to have covered up the origins of the virus. In ordering US intelligence agencies to “redouble their efforts” to find the truth Biden said that the US would “keep working with like-minded partners around the world to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation”.

Pompeo’s article was co-authored by Lewis “Scooter” Libby, 70, who served as chief of staff to Dick Cheney as vice-president between 2001 and 2005. Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements over the leak of details that identified a CIA agent. His prison sentence was commuted by President Bush and he was pardoned by President Trump.

A Covid outbreak in southern China means that almost 40 million people are subject to lockdown measures requiring them to produce a negative test before leaving their cities. Shenzhen followed other cities in imposing restrictions as part of a zero-tolerance policy after a small but persistent outbreak in the surrounding region.

Health authorities in Guangdong province are conducting mass testing and vaccinations. The province of 120 million people has administered ten million shots in four days.

The Times