OPINION: Why Is A Single American Taxpayer Dollar Going To China, Our Greatest Enemy?

Last week, Senator Rand Paul and Dr. Anthony Fauci went viral after they argued during a Senate hearing over the definition of “gain of function” research. Specifically, the butted heads over whether the U.S. funded the type of research potentially connected with the Wuhan lab at the center of the contentious “lab leak” theory of COVID-19’s origins.

“Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about!” said Dr. Fauci, after Sen. Paul referenced a paper by a Wuhan lab researcher which discussed what was, in the senator’s opinion, an example of “gain of function” research.

WATCH: Complete exchange between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Senator @RandPaul.

Dr. Fauci: “Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about.” pic.twitter.com/2wFbAxicI2

— CSPAN (@cspan) July 20, 2021

While officials like Fauci attempt to wiggle away from any semblance of responsibility by hiding behind deliberately fluid definitions, however, we are missing the most important point of all.

The question is not “did the U.S. fund ‘gain-of-function’ research in China,” or “did the U.S. fund research which resulted in the COVID-19 outbreak?”

Instead, the question is “why on earth are we sending a single penny to our greatest enemy on the world stage?”

As I have said on multiple occasions, China — under the iron-fist of the Chinese Communist Party — is today’s Nazi Germany. While American leaders wring their hands over the threat of Russia or Iran or North Korea, they are ignoring the growth of the single greatest threat to Western liberty on the planet.

Whether it be the CCP’s open disdain for human rights, their military aggression against neighboring states, or the attempt to place the world economy in a stranglehold, China’s status as the United States’ greatest adversary — both economically, militarily, and ethically — is unquestionable.

Then why are we sending them money?

For example, the NIH gave almost $600,000 (through a nonprofit and various grant systems) to the Wuhan Institute of Virology over several years to study bat coronaviruses.

Why?

The claim that Chinese institutions are in any way independent of the Chinese Communist Party is either naive or deeply moronic. In the world’s foremost dictatorship, we can safely assume any and all companies, organizations, and institutions exist only with the CCP’s blessing.

This means that one dollar sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology is, effectively, one dollar sent to the Chinese government, with not much more than Fauci’s assumption of academic honesty protecting our taxpayer funds from anti-American misappropriation.

People would understandably scoff at the idea of sending taxpayer dollars to the Nazi Party during World War II. Then why do we accept the idea that China should receive a single American dollar today?

The argument over the NIH and its involvement with COVID-19 pales in comparison to the importance of knowing who our friends are on the world stage, and who our enemies are.

China is an enemy, and it’s time we started treating them as such. Ending funding for their “research” —regardless of whether or not it resulted in a worldwide pandemic — seems like an obvious place to start.

Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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