Gordon Chang says China's leaders fear 'crime of the century' will be 'exposed' by global coronavirus probe
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Foreign affairs journalist Gordon Chang told "Hannity" Tuesday that the Chinese Communist government is very concerned about the possible exposure of their wrongdoing and incompetence in the handling of the coronavirus.
"[T]hey know that something really wrong is going to be exposed," Chang said. "... Their actions have been malicious in terms of deliberately taking actions that would inevitably lead to the spread of the virus outside of China’s borders, so this is the crime of the century."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK, STATE-BY-STATE
Earlier Tuesday, the European Union said its member states will co-sponsor a resolution calling for an independent investigation into the origin and spread of COVID-19. Chang said such pronouncements from the international community will lead to China's leaders feeling "cornered."
"Chinese leaders ... know they have no defense, and so therefore they are acting belligerently," Chang said. "This is a very dangerous period."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who joined Chang for the segment, told Hannity that "calls for an international invetigation like the European Union will now make, that Australia's already made, are going to be met with deaf ears in China, and it's only going to raise the stakes for making China pay for this pandemic.
"Some things we can do, like changing our sovereign immunity laws to make sure that Americans can sue the Chinese officials who are responsible for this pandemic," Cotton added. "There are a lot of overdue actions we can take as well, like bringing our manufacturing base back to the United States, to quit letting China taking our jobs or stealing our intellectual property. I think that is going to be a big part of the reaction you see from Congress in the months ahead."
Hannity asked Chang what he believes to be the true death toll in the city of Wuhan and the surrounding areas.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Probably 49,000, maybe 50,000 [dead] in Wuhan alone," Chang answered. "I’m sure that there were a number of deaths in Chongqing.
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"There have been clusters of disease all throughout the country. We are seeing a second wave ... but we really don’t know, because they have been extraordinary in covering up all of this. So we can only guess but it’s many multiples of what they’ve been reporting."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}According to Johns Hopkins University, the official count stood at 68,128 confirmed coronavirus cases in Hubei province as of late Tuesday, with 4,512 deaths.