Trump Blames Chinese Regime for Pandemic: ‘The World Is Paying a Very Big Price’

President Donald Trump speaks during press briefing with the coronavirus task force, at the White House in Washington on March 18, 2020, as Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Seema Verma, Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, listen Evan Vucci/AP Photo

President Donald Trump suggested that the Chinese regime is to blame for the viral pandemic that has now appeared in more than 150 countries globally.

“It could have been stopped right where it came from, China,” Trump said during a White House press conference on Thursday. “The world is paying a very big price for what they did,” he said in reference to a question about Chinese Communist Party officials not sharing information sooner about the outbreak when it started.

“It would have been much better if we had known about this a number of months earlier,” the president said, adding that U.S. officials could have moved more quickly if the regime shared information about the CCP virus, which emerged in Wuhan.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.

A reporter also asked the president about the regime reporting no new cases of the virus since the outbreak began last year.

“I hope it’s true,” Trump said before qualifying, “But who knows?”

Workers prepare to disinfect rooms at the Red Cross hospital in Wuhan, China, on March 18, 2020. STR/AFP via Getty Images

During China’s outbreak, a number of citizen journalists, human rights activists, and people on social media accused the regime of covering up the number of cases and deaths. Disturbing video footage during the height of the outbreak showed what appeared to be CCP officials abducting people and locking people inside their homes.

Widespread anger was triggered in early February when a Chinese doctor who tried to warn the public about the viral outbreak died. Li Wenliang died after contracting the coronavirus while treating patients in Wuhan, it was announced.

Li was told by officials to “stop making false comments” and was investigated for “spreading rumours,” the BBC reported. His father said that he wasn’t spreading rumors.

Human Rights Watch, in a report on March 12, criticized the Chinese regime and the World Health Organization for engaging in censorship.

“If free speech existed in China, global media sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as Chinese internet platforms would be inundated with desperate calls for help and harrowing stories of deaths and illnesses posted by people living under quarantine. And when you see on your own social media feed the massive sufferings as a result of these ’speedy' measures, you may think differently of them,” according to the organization.