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McSally, Gaetz Push To Ensure US Taxpayer Funding Of Wuhan Lab Stops

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A joint letter written by Senator Martha McSally, R-AZ, and Congressman Matt Gaetz, R-FL, was sent to Congressional leaders Tuesday urging them to “ensure funding is cut off” to the Wuhan Virology Institute, which is currently being investigated for potentially being the source of the coronavirus.

“We were troubled by recent media reports that the National Institute of Health (NIH) has been funding secretive and dangerous laboratory research at the WIV for many years,” the two lawmakers wrote. “According to NIH’s website, the WIV is currently authorized by the NIH to receive taxpayer funding for animal research.”

Questions first began to surface after The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin wrote of State Department cables concerning the lab’s inadequate safety procedures and warning of a potential “SARS-like pandemic” stemming from bats, in January 2018, which U.S. Embassy officials in Beijing discovered two years before the coronavirus pandemic began. The lab is a biosafety level 4 facility, which means it conducts experiments on some of the world’s deadliest viruses such as Ebola.

Multiple sources later confirmed to Fox News that the virus likely came from the Wuhan lab and was used “as part of China’s attempt to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States.” Days later, U.S. officials confirmed to the news site that a “full-scale investigation” into whether the virus leaked from the lab was underway.

The recent letter from Capitol Hill echoes the concerns of the intelligence community. Moreover, McSally and Gaetz are encouraging Congressional action in an attempt to further divest U.S. taxpayer dollars from the Chinese government and their nefarious operations.

They wrote, “We’re sure you agree that taxpayers’ money should not be sent to a dangerous Chinese state-run bio-agent laboratory that lacks meaningful oversight from U.S. authorities and is run by adversaries with a history of lab leaks, including SARS, and deception about the causes and extent of deadly disease outbreaks, including COVID-19. Although President Trump has stated that his administration ‘will end that grant quickly,’ we hope to ensure that WIV will not receive federal funds in any future spending package.”

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China

‘I Don’t Buy It’: Both Democrats and Republicans don’t believe TikTok’s pledge to protect Americans from CCP

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Screen Shot 2020 07 07 at 10.49.04 AM

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew had a hard time smoothing things over with both Democrats and Republicans during his Thursday testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. both parties expressed cynicism towards the notion that TikTok would protect U.S. data and American users of the app from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Specifically, lawmakers and regulators are concerned “about Chinese laws which require companies based in the country, such as TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, to provide the CCP with access to user data and other proprietary information” reports National Review.

National Review noted that TikTok was reportedly told by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., an inter-agency panel consisting of nine cabinet-level officials, to sell its stake in the social-media app or risk a ban in the U.S.

Before Chew testified on Thursday, China said it strongly opposed ByteDance’s divestment from the social-media platform. China’s Commerce Ministry said that a sale or divestiture of TikTok would involve exporting technology and had to be approved by the Chinese government, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Democrat and ranking member, Representative Frank Pallone, Jr. of New Jersey said Chew’s solution of a $1.5 billion plan nicknamed ‘Project Texas’ which allegedly would “wall off U.S. operations, with all data being stored here” is unacceptable.

Project Texas would give U.S. company Oracle based in Texas the ability to access TikTok’s algorithms in order to flag issues for government inspectors. “I still believe that the Beijing Communist government will still control and have the ability to influence what you do. So this idea, this Project Texas is simply not acceptable,” Pallone said.

“Look, the impression you are giving, and I can understand why you are giving that impression, is that you are just performing some kind of public service here. Right? I mean this is a benign company that is just performing a public service. Maybe that’s not what you are saying, but I don’t buy it,” Pallone continued.

Democrat Marc Veasey of Texas stated to Chew, “A lot of your evasiveness today in answering many of these questions really disturbs me.” The committee’s chairwoman, Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers from Washington opened the hearing by exposing Chew off the bat: “You state that ByteDance is not beholden to the CCP. Again, each of the individuals I listed are affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.”

 

 

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