Rep. Rob Wittman to Newsmax: China Will 'Never' Come Clean

China is not going to submit to full transparency on the origins of the global coronavirus pandemic, so the ball will ultimately be in the Biden administration's court to hold its feet to the fire, according to Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., on Newsmax.

"I don't think China is going to do that, because I do think that China is culpable in this situation," Wittman, a member of the House Republican China Task Force, told Thursday's "Cortes & Pellegrino." "So not providing that information will never give us the full picture, which means the Biden administration needs to play hardball with China and say, 'O.K., if you're not going to give us the information, here are the consequences for not having a full and open disclosure of what happened at the Wuhan lab.

"Because short of that China is not going to do anything. Listen, China is very much the bully. They're going to continue to push away and say, 'no, we're not going to do this.' The United States has to get tough with them. That means sanctions. That means economic impact for their lack of transparency with what happened at Wuhan."

Wittman, along with House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., has introduced the World Deserves to Know Act that seeks to force the Biden administration's hand on holding China accountable – whether it was an accident or biological warfare.

"If this happened on purpose, that is absolutely unacceptable – and even if there was escape, that's irresponsible," Wittman told co-hosts Steve Cortes and Jenn Pellegrino. "We need to make sure we hold them accountable and, in order to do that, we have to have the truth. And we want to make sure this never happens again."

Wittman is a biologist who says the genetic makeup of SARs-CoV-2 that causes the COVID-19 disease, death, and economic destruction shows there is more to the "story than what meets the eye."

"If you look at the genetic makeup of this organism, COVID-19, it indicates that there was something that was done to that organism," Wittman said. "Listen, I'm a biologist by training. I ran laboratories for years worked in laboratories worked with pathogenic organisms. There is more to this story than what meets the eye. China denies anybody access to look at what happened in that laboratory. They will not provide opportunities for a fair, objective, and an independent evaluation of their laboratory.

"And if they don't do that, I believe they need to be held accountable."

Regardless of the global coronavirus pandemic, China's goal under Xi Jinping is world dominance, Wittman added.

"The scope and depth and breath of Chinese aggressiveness around the world both economically and strategically is sobering," he said, noting leaders around the world "are adamant about what they see in Chinese behavior, and that is it's opportunistic and exploitive."

"The Chinese are all about expanding their influence," he continued. "Jinping is about one thing: power worldwide and more of it. So don't underestimate what the Chinese purpose is with this.

"They want to dominate the world, and they will use any means by which to do that. I think the sooner that we come to that realization and that we design our policy and our interaction with China, the better off we'll be.

"Because if we don't, eventually China will be in that position of not being a near peer, but they will be the world dominant power."

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