Josh Hawley Tells Xi Jinping to ‘Come Clean’ About Coronavirus Origins

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter to communist dictator Xi Jinping on Friday, telling him to “come clean” about the origins of the coronavirus after Congress passed a bill to declassify information on the virus’s origins, sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk.

The COVID-19 Origin Act swiftly passed Congress and requires the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to declassify and make public any potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of the deadly coronavirus.

Before the legislation was voted on in the House of Representatives, the Chinese Embassy sent a letter to Hawley, saying, “China firmly opposes and strongly condemns [the bill].” It also urged him to retract the bill and accused him of “political manipulation.”

SCOOP: A Chinese govt official sent this letter to the office of Sen. @HawleyMO yesterday, criticizing Congress for the COVID Origin Act that he introduced in late February pic.twitter.com/yJPsk9Zxok

— Liz Elkind (@liz_elkind) March 9, 2023

After the House of Representatives unanimously passed a coronavirus origins declassification bill on Friday, Hawley sent a letter to the communist dictator, saying, “Today the U.S. House of Representatives followed the Senate in unanimously adopting my bill to declassify U.S. government intelligence on the origins of the COVID virus.”

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. I thought I’d update President Xi on today’s passage 👇 pic.twitter.com/uuzGiIebEl

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 10, 2023

“I know you are keenly interested in this bill—your own Communist officials have written to my office demanding we renounce it, in their usual lecturing, idiotic style,” Hawley wrote to Xi. “But the bill will soon be law—unless you can convince President Biden to veto it. Time is up. Come clean about your role in spreading COVID to the world.”

The bipartisan effort came after the Wall Street Journal reported at the end of last month that a U.S. Energy Department classified intelligence report indicated that the coronavirus pandemic may have begun with a laboratory leak. Breitbart News reported:

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday the Energy Department’s revised assessment of the pandemic’s origins is based on fresh intelligence noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.

The WSJ further states while the investigation is ongoing, more authorities are coming to the lab leak hypothesis however there is as yet no unanimous decision.

While the WSJ acknowledged that the Energy Department made its judgment with “low confidence,” according to those who read the classified report, it aligns with previous speculation about the virus’s origin, as Breitbart News has reported.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.