May 20, 2020

Marshall: Time to hold China accountable for COVID-19

Posted May 20, 2020 12:45 PM

By NICK GOSNELL

Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas First District Congressman Dr. Roger Marshall wants to be sure China is held accountable for its role in allowing the COVID-19 pandemic to spread across the globe.

"I don't know whether they purposely let this virus go, or they just were trying to cover it up," Marshall said. "There's a whole lot of there there. This bill gives the President the authority, the power to shine a light on China as well as the World Health Organization and expose this cover up for what it is."

The goal is to get the Chinese to be honest with the rest of the world.

"We are going to require China to close their wet markets," Marshall said. "It's going to help bring the pharmaceutical supply chain home as well as put sanctions on China. Things like freezing their assets, travel bans, visas, those types of things, as well."

The reason the U.S. still needs China as a part of the economic world is it's too large a market to leave on the table.

"What we have to do is hold them accountable for their commitments to the trade agreement that we worked so hard with President Trump to get done in January," Marshall said. "We are keeping an eye on that. We're trying to make sure that we're continuing to ship out milo from across Kansas as well as wheat and cattle, all those types of things."

Making sure that even in the face of the pandemic, China keeps their economic promises is going to be an important part of keeping the global economy afloat going forward.