Blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it has caused a "huge challenge" for the global as well as the US economy by not sharing the information they had and the ruling Communist Party "will pay a price" for it.
China has come under increasing pressure from nations across the world, including the US, over the lack of transparency in its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far claimed more than 190,870 lives globally, with America leading the tally with nearly 50,000 deaths.
President Donald Trump had said his administration was looking into reports that the novel coronavirus "escaped" from a Wuhan virology laboratory before it spread to the world.
"I am very confident that the Chinese Communist Party will pay a price for what they did here, certainly from the United States. I don't know exactly what form that will take," Pompeo told Fox News in an interview on Thursday night.
However, he underlined that the focus was not on China now but the US administration's goal is to control the virus and revive the American economy. "It's on making sure we keep Americans safe, take down the health risk, keep people healthy as we can, and get this economy going back," he said.