China blame game: White House adviser says Beijing ‘created’ coronavirus, 'open question' whether it was deliberate

Unfazed by the lack of evidence, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro went on accusing China of creating Covid-19, possibly even purposefully, as he was grilled about the US readiness for the pandemic.

Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper what the president and his team are doing to prepare for a potential second wave of the coronavirus, Navarro quickly launched into a diatribe about China.

“China created this pandemic,” he said. “They hid the virus. They created that virus. And they sent over hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens here to spread that around and around the world,” he said. “Whether they did that on purpose, that’s an open question. But that’s a fact.”

Despite labeling his opinion as “fact,” Navarro did not provide any evidence for China being behind the coronavirus or its spread. The president has similarly blamed China and even suggested the virus was created in a lab, but also has provided no evidence. 

When pressed to substantiate his remarks that China “created” the pandemic, Navarro simply doubled down and said the virus was “spawned from China” and is a “product of the Chinese Communist Party.”

“That virus was a product of the Chinese Communist Party. And until we get some information about what happened in those labs, what happened in that wet market, we know that that virus was spawned in China. That is what I mean: spawned in China,” he said. 

As to whether China “purposefully” created the virus with the intention of starting a pandemic, Navarro said it’s an “open question” that needs to be answered. 

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