Sen. Cotton: Chinese government 'still lying' about coronavirus as evidence indicates rising death tolls

close

Video

Sen. Cotton proposes measure to reduce US reliance on China pharmaceutical production

Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sen. Tom Cotton joins ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is calling out the Chinese government for continuing to lie about coronavirus, after their initial response to it – according to him – caused it to become the global problem that it is.

Cotton pointed to facts on the ground in China that directly contradict the messages coming from the country’s leaders.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: CDC'S CORONAVIRUS 'TRAVEL ADVISORY' WILL ULTIMATELY 'HELP STOP THE VIRUS'

“The Chinese Communist Party is still lying,” Cotton said, stating he knew in January that the virus could be a global pandemic because of the Chinese government’s response. They had downplayed its seriousness early on, despite placing tens of millions of people under lockdown, and now Cotton claims they continue to issue statements undermined by the facts.

“You see it again today. So, for instance, China says they have no more new cases, no more new deaths, yet they just closed all movie theaters nationwide only a few days after having opened them up,” he told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” adding that Wuhan mortuaries also tell a different story from government officials.

“They say they’ve only had 2,500 cases that resulted in deaths or so, yet a single mortuary has ordered more than 5,000 urns. You can look at these basic facts to know that the Chinese Communist Party is still lying today, as they were in December and January, and that’s why what could have been a local problem in Wuhan turned into a global pandemic from which more than 2,000 Americans have now died.”

MEDICAL PLANE REPORTEDLY USED FOR CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE IN PHILIPPINES 'CAUGHT FIRE AND EXPLODED,' AMERICAN AMONG 8 DEAD

In February, Cotton had spoken of a Chinese “biosafety Level 4 super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases” in Wuhan. In light of that, plus China’s barring of the CDC and the expulsion of reporters from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post, Cotton said that there is evidence that China is “trying to cover up the biggest story in the world.”

Cotton said that China has recognized that the early story that the virus first came about in a Wuhan market is not true, although the population in the market served to spread it.

“As for what happened in that biosafety Level 4 laboratory, that super lab in Wuhan, we still don’t know because the Chinse CP refuses to come clean,” he said.

Cotton noted that China was researching coronaviruses. While he acknowledged that there are “legitimate reasons” for doing so, such as developing vaccines or therapeutic drugs, “we don’t know the origin of this virus still to this day.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Meanwhile, Cotton discussed how reliant the U.S. has been on China for the production of antibiotics and pharmaceutical ingredients, which is why he is pushing legislation to reduce this reliance by incentivizing manufacturing in the U.S. and having the federal government purchase American-made products.

Eventually, Cotton said, China will be held accountable for their actions "when they lose things like the manufacturing capacity that we’ve outsourced to them or when other democratic governments around the world respond to their people who know that China is responsible for this virus.”