Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told Chinese President Xi Jinping to come clean about the origins of COVID-19 as his bill to declassify information on the origins of the virus heads to President Biden’s desk.
Hawley shared his letter to Xi online on Friday in a tweet regarding Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials contacting his office in an attempt to pressure him into withdrawing the bill.
“China has been so worked up about this COVID origins bill, Communist officials wrote to my office earlier this week and demanded I drop it,” Hawley wrote.
CHINA WRITES FURIOUS LETTER TO HAWLEY ON COVID ORIGINS BILL: ‘POLITICAL MANIPULATION’
“I thought I’d update President Xi on today’s passage,” Hawley continued, noting his bill’s unanimous passage through the House of Representatives on Friday.
In his Friday letter to Xi, Hawley highlighted the bill’s unanimous passage through the House and Senate and said he knows Xi is “keenly interested in this bill,” adding the Chinese president’s “own Communist officials have written to my office demanding we renounce it, in their usual lecturing, idiotic style.”
“But the bill will soon be law — unless you can convince President Biden to veto it,” Hawley wrote. “Time is up.”
“Come clean about your role in spreading COVID to the world,” he added.
Hawley’s bill to declassify information on the origins of COVID-19 previously passed the Senate with a unanimous vote.
The bill will head to Biden’s desk for his signature.
The Chinese government on Wednesday blasted Hawley’s bill to declassify information about COVID-19’s origin as an act of “political manipulation” in a letter sent directly to the lawmaker’s office.
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials sent a three-page letter to Hawley’s office, a copy of which was obtained by Fox News Digital, accusing the U.S. of “undermining international solidarity” in fighting the coronavirus. It also repeated Beijing’s argument that the virus could have potentially originated in a North Carolina lab.
“I am reaching out to express our grave concern regarding the ‘Covid-19 Origin Act of 2023’ (S.619), which falsely claimed that the Covid-19 corona virus originated from Wuhan Institute of Virology, accuses China of blocking international investigations, refusing to share information and lacking transparency etc. and required the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information relating to the origin of COVID–19. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this,” the letter said.
It was written by an official in the Chinese embassy of Washington, D.C., and addressed to Hawley’s chief of staff.
The Missouri Republican suggested to Fox News Digital on Thursday that he took China’s angry letter as a sign of encouragement.
“When China is this upset about a proposal, you know you’re on the right track,” Hawley told Fox News Digital. “The American people deserve to know the truth about the origins of COVID, and China must be held accountable.”