Highland County Press 12/31/2020
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has issued the following statement in response to reports that China will jail journalist Zhang Zhan for four years, in retaliation for Zhan's efforts in early 2020 to document the emergence and spread of COVID-19, and announced his intention to reintroduce the "Ending Chinese Medical Censorship and Cover Ups Act," legislation to sanction Chinese officials involved in the ongoing suppression of medical experts, journalists, and political dissidents trying to disseminate medical information:
"In the early days of the pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party did everything it could to cover up the severity of the outbreak, from lying about the origin of the virus and how it was being transmitted, to destroying evidence, to silencing the brave whistleblower doctors, scientists, journalists and activists who tried to warn the world and prevent a global public health crisis," Cruz said. "Had the CCP acted responsibly, there's a very real possibility the coronavirus could have been contained as a regional outbreak. Almost a year later, the CCP is continuing and deepening its repression of those whistleblowers.
"The consequences of this censorship continuing are deadly - not just for those in China but for Americans and people around the world. That's why at the start of the next Congress I will reintroduce a version of my bill from the 116th Congress, the Ending Chinese Medical Censorship and Cover Ups Act, legislation to impose visa bans and asset blocks on those who punish or censor Chinese citizens for reporting accurate information about a disease. COVID-19 went global because of this sort of malign behavior, and it is imperative that those who conduct it are held accountable."
Cruz has been leading the charge in the Senate to fundamentally reassess the U.S.-China relationship and counter Chinese censorship in the wake of the CCP coronavirus coverup.
More:
https://highlandcountypress.com/Content/In-The-News/In-The-News/Article/Sen-Cruz-condemns-jailing-of-Chinese-journalist-who-documented-Wuhan-coronavirus-outbreak/2/20/63616
