Biden Says He’s Concerned About China’s Handling of COVID Crisis

President Joe Biden talks with reporters outside of the White House in Washington on Jan. 4, 2023, before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn. AP Photo/Susan Walsh

President Joe Biden says he’s concerned by how China’s communist regime is handling its current COVID-19 surge, noting that the regime in Beijing is sensitive to criticism.

As many as 248 million people in China may have contracted COVID-19 over the first 20 days of December 2022, according to a report.

The president said on Jan. 4 that the United States is prepared.

“Yes, I am, but I think we just have to make the protocol we set out that, that if you’re flying from China, you’ve got to be tested,” Biden said.

The president then referred to the issue of the regime’s lack of transparency amid the latest outbreak.

“China has not been ... I know they’re very sensitive when we suggest they haven’t been that forthcoming,” he said.

The remarks, made to reporters in Kentucky after an event there promoting his administration’s infrastructure law, follow a week of contention between China’s communist rulers and the international community over the regime’s refusal to provide accurate data about COVID-19 in the country.

This picture shows COVID-19 patients on beds at Tianjin Nankai Hospital in Tianjin, China, on Dec. 28, 2022. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

A senior official for the World Health Organization said earlier this week that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, hasn’t been providing accurate information regarding the state of COVID-19 in China.

The ongoing COVID crisis in China itself follows the regime’s abrupt halt to its so-called zero-COVID policies in December, after weeks of historic protests across the country.

The past weeks have seen COVID-19 spread like wildfire through the Chinese population, which has little natural immunity following nearly three years of lockdowns and other onerous restrictions.

Amid the upsurge, the regime announced in late December that it would end its travel bans and allow Chinese residents to fly freely throughout the world, a move described by some experts as irresponsible and a potential trigger for a global resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The situation has caused international alarm as world leaders struggle to respond while having no sound information about the variants of COVID-19 currently circulating among the Chinese population.

Mass Death, Infections

While the regime publicly claims that only 10 people died from the disease throughout December, leaked images of papers from China’s top health body revealed that authorities believe that as many as 248 million Chinese became infected within the first 20 days of December 2022.

A December report released by UK-based health data firm Airfinity estimated that about 9,000 people in China are dying each day from COVID-19 and that the number will likely reach 25,000 deaths per day by later this month.

Cumulative deaths in China since Dec. 1 have probably reached 161,000, according to the report.

European Union nations are now coordinating travel restrictions, while other nations, such as the United States, have already issued a restriction that travelers from China must provide a negative COVID-19 test before departing.

The CCP has threatened “countermeasures” against any nation that requires its residents to provide a negative COVID-19 test.

The Biden administration says there’s no cause for such retaliation from Beijing.

“There’s no cause for retaliation here just because countries around the world are taking prudent health measures to protect their citizens,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a Jan. 3 press conference.

“This decision is based on public health and science. This is coming from our experts here. And other countries like Japan, like South Korea, the UK, France, India, Italy, and Malaysia are also taking similar public steps.”