In an attempt to look tough for his reelection bid Rubio pushes for new China sanctions
WASHINGTON — Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is preparing to introduce a bill that would place new sanctions on China unless it allows “a transparent international investigation of suspect laboratories in Wuhan,” in particular the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has become the focus of intense speculation and scrutiny in recent months, including from President Biden.
Rubio and other Biden critics want the president to be more aggressive in getting China to accede to a thorough investigation, which the country’s leadership has so far resisted. Biden suggested earlier this week that he would apply pressure on Beijing, but he offered no specifics about how he would do so.
Neither the White House nor the office of Charles Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, responded to queries from Yahoo News about new sanctions for China, but a senior staffer in Rubio’s office said that there were some encouraging signs of bipartisan support. Democrats may resist endorsing a bill by Rubio — a likely challenger to Biden in the 2024 election — but they ultimately have few options to compel cooperation aside from the kind of sanctions his proposed legislation describes.
“The Chinese Communist Party does not want a full, forensic investigation into the origins of COVID-19. If they did, it would have happened at some point during the last 18 months,” Rubio told Yahoo News. “It is clear Beijing fears the results of” such an investigation “far more than international backlash over its lack of transparency.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rubio-pushes-for-new-china-sanctions-amid-questions-over-coronavirus-lab-leak-theory/ar-AALfoMb
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