Sen. Tom Cotton: The United States should start punishing China
“China’s chances of ever conceding that they’re responsible for this virus is zero. But that new report from the Lawrence Livermore Lab just confirms what I’ve been saying from the very beginning, just use your common sense. This virus emerged in a city larger than New York, just a few blocks down the road from the lab where they research these viruses.
Every bit of evidence we have points to those labs. And it’s past time to hold China accountable for their negligence and their deceitfulness in unleashing this plague on the world. There [are] lots of things we could do.
We could revoke their permanent most-favored-nation status, a bad mistake that we made twenty years ago. We could team up with our allies and take back the very favorable financing terms they get from international financial institutions like the World Bank. We could take away visas from Chinese Communist Party members and their kids so they can’t send their kids to American schools anymore. There’s no end to the things we can do to make China pay for unleashing this plague and we should start right now.”
.
“No single entity exercises a more pervasive, nefarious influence across a wide range of American industries and institutions than the Communist Party of China.”
With the phrase “Stop CCP Influence” displayed in bold letters across his podium, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed two bills to thwart foreign meddling in Florida’s government and education system. The bills (HB 1523) and (HB 7017) are primarily aimed at China. (HB 1523) creates the crime of “trafficking in trade secrets” and enhances criminal penalties if the secrets are stolen and provided to a foreign government. (HB 7017) aims to curb foreign influence in the state’s academic research institutions.
“If you’re somebody that will light your hair on fire because Georgia is requiring voter ID .. but yet you’re lining your pocket with money from China and not a peep about the slave labor that’s going on over there .. you my friend are a hypocrite.”
Academia, he explained, is “permeated” with influence, detailing how researchers are getting indicted at major institutions “for being in cahoots with the Chinese government.” The corporate media and entertainment industry are no better, he continued.
“You look at corporate media and entertainment industry in this country. They are in the pocket of the Communist Party of China. I mean, if Hollywood comes up with a movie the CCP doesn’t like, they get censored,” he said, adding that the corporate media assisted in suppressing the truth about the lab leak theory. He also noted the deep financial ties the corporate media have to the CCP.
Big Tech, DeSantis continued, also runs interference for CCP, while celebrities and athletes continue to “virtue-signal” for things in the U.S., yet almost all of them fail to do the same for the atrocities the CCP commits.
“Enough is enough. We’ve got to start fighting back.”
(email to friends)