蓬佩奧再次批評中國未及時向世衛組織通報新冠疫情信息 VOA 20200422

蓬佩奧再次批評中國未及時向世衛組織通報新冠疫情信息    VOA 20200422

美國國務卿蓬佩奧（Mike Pompeo）再次批評中國沒有及時向世衛組織匯報新冠疫情信息，直到中國各省都出現疫情才報告“人傳人”的現象。蓬佩奧說，中國此舉違反了世衛組織相關規定，並批評世衛組織總幹事譚德塞沒有公開中國違規的情況。中國方面則一直堅稱已做到了公開透明。

他在星期三（4月22日）的記者會上說，“我們堅信中國共產黨沒有及時向世衛組織報告新冠病毒的爆發。（世衛）一項改革的一部分，即國際衛生條例第6條，進一步要求包括中國在內的成員國須就公共衛生信息與世衛組織保持及時、準確、充分的溝通。就是說，即便是在中共向世衛組織通報了新冠病毒的爆發後，也還有持續溝通的義務。”

他接著說：“中國沒有分享其所掌握的全部信息。相反，它掩蓋了疫情的危險性。持續人傳人的情況一個月沒有報告，直到全中國每個省份都出現疫情。中國讓那些試圖警告世界的人噤聲，以便能夠停止測試新樣本，並毀掉了已有的樣本”。

蓬佩奧還批評中國利用世界對新冠疫情的關注，繼續其“挑釁行為”，不但侵蝕香港的自治，還對台灣施加軍事壓力，並在南中國海脅迫鄰國。

他表示：“美國強烈反對中國的欺凌行為，我們希望其他國家追究他們的責任。”

蓬佩奧還在會上提及了中國一些實驗室的安全問題。這些實驗室仍在研究複雜的病原體。他對記者說：“重要的是，要以安全可靠的方式處理，以免意外洩露。”

蓬佩奧國務卿還在紀念世界地球日50週年的一份聲明中呼籲中國和其他國家關閉野生動物“濕貨市場”，稱此舉“將降低對人類健康的風險”。

他在聲明中表示： “值此世界地球日，我們還應強調野生動物販賣的危險後果。野生動物'濕貨市場'是野生動物販賣的熱門地點，在這裡，人們售賣活的物種，為疾病的產生和傳播帶來風險，野生動物'濕貨市場'也可能在新冠大流行的傳播中發揮了關鍵作用。”

他還呼籲中國和其他國家“永久關閉野生動物濕貨市場”，稱此舉將降低對人類健康的風險，並阻止對被販賣的野生動物和野生動物產品的消費，“我們呼籲各國政府與我們一同努力，打擊並結束野生動物販賣這一禍患（scourge）。”

一些美國國會議員本月初在致中國駐美國大使崔天凱的信中也發出了類似的呼籲。信中稱：“中國的濕貨市場是一系列全球健康問題的根源，為了保護中國人民和國際社會免受額外的健康風險，它們應該立即停止運營。”

美國國家過敏與傳染病研究所主任安東尼·弗契（Anthony Fauci）醫生本月也曾在福克斯新聞節目訪談中表示，國際社會應該向有關國家施壓，促使他們關閉濕貨市場。弗契認為，當前的公共健康危機正是那些不衛生的購物場所造成的“直接結果”。

“濕貨市場”是指出售和現場宰殺家禽、家畜和海鮮甚至野生動物、稀有動物的市場，這類市場充滿了血液、糞尿和髒水，時常引發有關衛生安全的疑慮。

Secretary Michael R. Pompeo Remarks to the Press At a Press Availability    20200422

SECRETARY POMPEO: Well, good morning, everyone.  Happy Ramadan to those of you in time zones where it’s Thursday already.

I want to lead off with three commemorations.

First, we remember those slain in terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.  That was one year ago yesterday.

Second, this week the administration honors the annual Holocaust Days of Remembrance.  This is the 75th anniversary year of the liberation of many Nazi concentration camps where so many innocent people were murdered, including 6 million Jews.  We bear witness to their stories so that such repugnant acts of evil will never happen again.

Third, it’s Earth Day, and especially in light of Secretary-General Guterres’ message released this morning to turn our recovery into a real opportunity to do the right thing, I want to remind everyone that the right way to achieve a greener, cleaner, brighter future for the world is to unleash private innovation and free market competition.  It’s what we’ve done here in the United States but continue to be our model, and we are a world leader in reducing all types of emission.

One simple data point: From 2005 to 2018, the most recent year we have data, U.S. emissions decreased by more than 10 percent even as our economy grew by 25 percent. China, conversely, has been the largest annual emitter since 2006 and it expects that its emissions will continue to grow until around 2030, thus offsetting the progress of countries all around the world in reducing global emissions.  I would urge Secretary Guterres to make sure we have the data right, the facts right about who is actually delivering on the things that we all value. And on Earth Day, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, I think that’s especially important.

Turning to the World Health Organization, I want to spend a few minutes telling the American people a little bit more about the problems that we’re trying to work our way through.

The WHO has two primary functions.  First, it’s a regulator and an advisory role, and a health emergency and humanitarian aid operation on top of that.

After the first SARS outbreak in 2003, the United States led the reform of the WHO, the WHO rules that govern how countries report on public health threats.  So a major reform effort at 2003.

Those rules – they’re called the International Health Regulations – went into effect in 2007.

We set very clear expectations. We – the world – set very clear expectations for how every country must disclose data to protect global health.

For example, Article 6 of the IHR says that “each State Party shall notify the World Health Organization…within 24 hours…of all events which may constitute a public health emergency of international concern within its territory…”

Annex 2 of those same rules provides that countries must notify the World Health Organization of any unusual or unexpected public health events such as SARS, a close genetic cousin of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Those rules also said how countries should evaluate when to notify the WHO of diseases of unknown causes or sources.

We strongly believe that the Chinese Communist Party did not report the outbreak of the new coronavirus in a timely fashion to the World Health Organization.

Article 6 of the IHRs, which was a part of this reform, further mandates that a State Party – that would include China – “shall continue to communicate to WHO timely, accurate and sufficiently detailed public health information…” That is, there’s an ongoing obligation.

Even after the CCP did notify the WHO of the coronavirus outbreak, China didn’t share all of the information it had.

Instead, it covered up how dangerous the disease is.  It didn’t report sustained human-to-human transmission for a month until it was in every province inside of China.  It censored those who tried to warn the world, it ordered a halt to testing of new samples, and it destroyed existing samples.

The CCP still has not shared the virus sample from inside of China with the outside world, making it impossible to track the disease’s evolution.

Not making a legal determination here today on China’s adherence to the IHRs, but the World Health Organization’s regulatory arm clearly failed during this pandemic.

I’d also note that when countries adopted these new rules in 2007, we also gave the director-general of the WHO encouragement and the ability to go public when a member-country wasn’t following those rules, and that didn’t happen in this case either.

It’s why we continue to insist this is an ongoing requirement for transparency and openness according to the WHO rules, and the WHO has responsibility to continue to enforce them today.  This transparency and getting it right is critical to saving lives today and in the future.

I’ll talk for just a minute about humanitarian aid.  The United States is the most generous nation on the planet, has been for the past three years, will continue to be this year.

Thanks to the American taxpayers, we’ve dedicated more than $140 billion in global funding for global health purposes in the past two decades.

Today I can confirm the United States is making an additional commitment of about 270 million to assist the most at-risk countries in fighting the virus, bringing our total to more than $775 million to date.

We do this in lots of ways.  We do this through multilateral organizations.  We help our partners by sharing expertise.  Today the CDC has officers stationed in 59 countries and has helped train thousands of epidemiologists worldwide over the years whose knowledge is providing incredibly valuable.

You should know it helps those countries, it saves lives in those countries, but this is a global pandemic and that work protects us right here at home in America as well.

Weeks before the first reported COVID case arrived in Guatemala, USAID helped the Ministry of Health there equip a key hospital to start caring for its first patients.

And the United States is training more than 70,000 pharmacists across Indonesia today so they can provide good advice and referrals.

American generosity isn’t limited to our assistance that comes directly from the United States Government.  Our businesses, our NGOs, charities, all faith groups – this is an all-of-America approach to saving lives all across the world and protecting us right here at home as well.

We estimate that the American people, in cume, have given nearly $3 billion in donations and assistance just to fight this particular virus.

America’s global health commitments remain as steady as ever.

Move on to a couple final points.  I want to highlight two ways in which the Chinese Communist Party is exploiting the world’s focus on COVID-19 crisis by continuing its provocative behavior.

First, we commented on what’s taking place in Hong Kong, where amidst increased efforts by Beijing to erode autonomy, law enforcement authorities have arrested pro-democracy activists, including 81-year-old Martin Lee.  We’ve always said that China has an obligation to live up to its promises, its obligation – as I was speaking about the virus earlier – to live up to the rules that it put in place and it signed off on.  We’d ask them to continue to do that here.

You’ve also seen that the Chinese Communist Party is exerting military pressure on Taiwan and coercing its neighbors in the South China Sea, even going so far as to have – so far as to sink a Vietnamese fishing vessel.

The United States strongly opposes China’s bullying; we hope other nations will hold them to account, too.  Tonight I’ll be on a phone call co-chaired by myself and my Laotian counterpart with every ASEAN member.

I want to note, too, that we are now well along in developing the implementing policies required by the law in the NDAA of 2019 prohibiting use of Huawei and other untrusted vendors in U.S. facilities.

Data that come into U.S. facilities will have to follow a Clean Path and reside and transit only through trusted systems. And we’ll provide full details on that before too long.

On Venezuela, as I’ve commented frequently from this podium, we’re continuing to apply pressure on the Maduro regime, all the while seeking to provide humanitarian assistance for the Venezuelan people.

As announced by the Department of Treasury yesterday, the general license which allowed certain companies to maintain operations – Venezuela, PDVSA – expires today.

The Treasury Department has announced a new, narrowly limited license for seven months which will allow companies that are operating there to begin their wind-down process.

And with that, I’m happy to take questions.