Fred Fleitz, the president of the Center for Security Policy, told Newsmax TV on Thursday that the U.S. must make “some very serious demands on China” regarding the spread of the coronavirus and future trade between the two countries.
“I think we're seeing decisive leadership by the president, a very strong team led by Vice President [Mike] Pence, these daily press briefings are reassuring the American people,” Fleitz told “Newsmax Now” on Thursday. “He's taking very decisive action, and we simply can't play down the significance of the president's decision on January 31 to cut off flights to the U.S. from China. I hate to think of the crisis our country would be in right now if that had not happened, and look, I got to mention [former Vice President] Joe Biden condemned that step as xenophobic, and god help us if Joe Biden was in the White House right now, how bad the situation would be.”
He added that “we're gonna have to have some very serious demands on China to close these wet markets that are repeatedly a source of dangerous viruses, the Chinese leadership knew about this but didn't close them. And I think the United States is going to have to reassess its trading relationship with China, whether we are going to continue to outsource important technologies and products such as pharmaceuticals that China's actually threatened to withhold to punish this government for criticizing China’s role in this crisis.”
Fleitz said, “we cannot be dependent upon China for crucial pharmaceuticals.”
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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