Cotton: Strip Most Favored Nation Status, Deny Use of U.S. Free-and-Open System to Make China Pay for Pandemic

Tuesday on FNC’s “Your World,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested how the United States could punish the Communist Chinese government for its role in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cotton told host Neil Cavuto certain privileges could be taken away from China and Chinese officials that would come as a blow to the ruling regime.

“Look, Neil, I think there’s a lot of steps we could take that would make China pay for this pandemic,” Cotton said. “And they’re steps that, frankly, should have been taken long ago. For instance, we can revoke their permanent most favored nation status. So, the president, the Congress have to decide every year if we’re going to continue giving special trade privileges to China. We could insist that international financial organizations, like the World Bank, treat China like the advanced industrial economy it is, not a Third World economy, as it once was, and stop giving them sweetheart financing deals.”

“We can yank visas from Chinese Communist Party officials and their kids, so they can’t benefit from the United States’ free and open system and our world-class higher education institutions,” he continued. “There’s a lot that we can do to make China pay for this and make it clear that we’re taking these actions in part because of Chinese malevolence and deceitfulness in unleashing this pandemic on the world.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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