Republican Senator Tom Cotton is engaged in a massive online battle with the Chinese government. The reason? The senator has criticized the way Beijing has dealt with the outbreak of the coronavirus, even suggesting that the deadly virus could have been created in a Chinese biological warfare lab. Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai doesn’t take that accusation lightly.
Cotton has criticized the Chicoms (Chinese communists) several times on Twitter. And no, he didn’t exactly mince his words. He directly blamed the Chinese Communist Party for the epidemic.
The Chinese Communist Party has laws on the book that prohibit “concealing, misreporting, or delaying” reporting of disease outbreaks. It ought to live up to this law itself instead of hiding the truth and censoring its people.https://t.co/46IMt5N6pX
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 7, 2020
In another tweet, Cotton added that “preventing [the] coronavirus from becoming an epidemic in America will require drastic changes from the Chinese Communist Party, whose secrecy and paranoia are responsible for its rapid growth.”
Preventing coronavirus from becoming an epidemic in America will require drastic changes from the Chinese Communist Party, whose secrecy and paranoia are responsible for its rapid growth. https://t.co/dJVJZuaNEb
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 8, 2020
Tiankai appeared on “Face The Nation” Sunday in order to a) calm down those who may be worried about the outbreak of this new coronavirus and b) apparently slam Senator Cotton. “It’s very harmful, it’s very dangerous, to stir up suspicion, rumors and spread them among the people,” the ambassador told viewers. “For one thing, this will create panic,” he said about Cotton’s criticism.
NEW: @AmbCuiTiankai dismisses #coronavirus conspiracy theories pushed by @SenTomCotton that it's being used as biological warfare as "absolutely crazy." WATCH –> pic.twitter.com/26D4r67Kj9
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 9, 2020
Shortly after “Face The Nation” tweeted this video of Ambassador Tiankai attacking Cotton, the senator struck back. “Here’s what’s not a conspiracy, not a theory,” he tweeted. “Fact: China lied about virus starting in Wuhan food market.”
.@ambcuitianki, here’s what’s not a conspiracy, not a theory:
Fact: China lied about virus starting in Wuhan food market https://t.co/Jgpy1Oh75Y
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 9, 2020
And he wasn’t done quite yet. “Fact,” he wrote, “super-lab is just a few miles from that market. Where did it start? We don’t know. But burden of proof is on you & fellow communists. Open up now to competent international scientists.”
Fact: super-lab is just a few miles from that market
Where did it start? We don’t know. But burden of proof is on you & fellow communists. Open up now to competent international scientists.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 9, 2020
The Chinese may not be happy about it, but increasingly more people have very serious questions about this new coronavirus — questions that have to be answered.
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