Of course they’ve got to get their own partisan jabs in, but an article so accusative of China, from the Washington Post, is sorta startling.
Bill Gates is Wrong: Chinas’s Coronavirus Coverup is not a ‘Distraction.’
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was surely speaking for a lot of people when he dismissed criticism of the Chinese government’s handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic as a “distraction” from the important work of fighting the virus here at home.
Yet the Chinese Communist Party is still working full time to cover up information about the outbreak and the Chinese government’s own failures. By so doing, it continues to threaten the health and lives of Americans. That can’t be ignored.
Gates argued Sunday on CNN that examining the Chinese government’s record of hiding information about the coronavirus outbreak, putting out false information, silencing critics and thwarting attempts to investigate its true origin is not useful at this time “because it doesn’t affect how we act today.” He said Beijing “did a lot of things right at the beginning” and has come under unfair criticism, “but it’s not even time for that discussion.”
Various groups — from conservative media outlets to the Chinese Communist Party — immediately seized upon his remarks to further their own agendas. But let’s focus on the bottom line: Gates’s comments are simply wrong, and dangerously so. Beijing’s bad behavior is neither past nor benign. In fact, it continues to put us at increased risk.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for depoliticizing the issue when asked about Gates’s comments Wednesday on Fox News.
It’s not a distraction,” he said. “We’ve had now thousands of Americans that have died as a result of this virus, and we know where that virus started. I hope this doesn’t become partisan. It’s too serious a matter.”