RUSH: There’s a fascinating piece today. I know a lot of you people believe that this virus is a communist Chinese, purposeful weapon. Admit it. Many of you people think this. I know it because I’ve had people say so. (interruption) You have no doubt…? (interruption)

Oh, yeah, I think there is doubt about it in some circles. You know, that some people playing around in a lab made a mistake, or is it a purposeful thing? I think there’s another way of look at this. Once Xi Jinping found out what he had, did he then use it to our detriment? A case could be made for that.

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RUSH: Now, let’s move on to the ChiCom story, because I have been asked by a tremendous number of people if I believe that the ChiCom government did this on purpose. In other words, is this a bioweapon that was created somewhere in a lab that the Chinese communist government deployed against its enemies to, in fact, create the circumstances under which we are living now: An economy shut down and in tatters — a $22 trillion economy shut down.

We did it ourselves. Sixteen million people and counting filing for unemployment. The federal Treasury, Federal Reserve printing money left and right — which, theoretically, is going to create all kinds of economic problems down the road. Now, I’ve resisted the idea that it was done purposefully as a weapon until I saw some evidence to the contrary.

I think the Chinese communists are capable of it, don’t misunderstand, and in my rummaging around to try to gather information on this, I came across a website called TheDiplomat.com, an Asia-Pacific website, and I want to read… I’d not heard of TheDiplomat.com. When I haven’t heard of a website, I’m a little — not suspicious, but I exercise even more care and caution that I’m not getting duped by a parody website or a phony baloney, plastic-banana, good-time, rock-and-roll website.

The piece is written by Ben Lowsen, L-o-w-s-e-n, and here’s how the qualifier at the end of the piece is written: “The views expressed in this [column] represent the personal views of the author and are not necessarily the views of the Department of Defense or of the Department of the Air Force.” So it’s an Asia-Pacific website, TheDiplomat.com, related to American military.

The headline of the piece: “Did Xi Jinping Deliberately Sicken the World?” and let me give you some pull quote highlights. Mr. Snerdley, you are in the school of thought that believes this is a weapon? (interruption) You do? (interruption) Okay. “At some point…” Again, this is Ben Lowsen — or Lowsen. I’m not sure how he pronounces it.

“At some point the Chinese Communist Party learned of the epidemic and made a decision to hide its existence…” He believes that they didn’t purposely weaponize anything. He believes that Xi Jinping and the ChiComs discovered what was going on in a lab or in a wet market, found out what this was, and made a decision to lie about it, to hide it, to pretend that it was nothing.

We’re talking last November and December. Mr. Lowsen here gives them such a benefit of the doubt. He believes that Xi Jinping and his ChiCom Politburo hoped the thing would “go away,” and that that is why they made a decision to hide it.

“Exposes in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post and the Chinese mainland’s” state-controlled newspaper “show that the information that did flow out of China early in the crisis did so only because of the courage of individual Chinese people in the face of government repression.”

This would be the doctors, the lab researchers who tried to warn everybody about it but were shut down. “People in the Wuhan epicenter, however, began to get wise,” and scared because they saw what was happening to people. They were getting wise.

They were getting scared. “By the end of December 2019, forcing their government to say something. The authorities gave the impression of a nontransmissible disease already under containment.” This is where the Chinese lied. Now, the writer of the story thinks they did this hoping it would go away, that they lied about it, they knew what it was. They decided to hide its existence. And when they did speak, they said it’s noncontagious, nontransmissible and that we’ve got it under control.

“We know now this was entirely false, likely designed more to ease civil unrest than protect the people.” ‘Cause protecting the people is never a concern with communist governments. And do not doubt me. I don’t care whether you love AOC, I don’t care whether you love Crazy Bernie, love Che Guevara or Castro, communist governments do not care a whit about protecting the people. They do care about stamping down, tamping down, preventing civil unrest.

And so it is highly likely that the ChiComs lied about this and said that it was nontransmissible and they had it under containment to make sure people didn’t raise hell about it on the streets of Wuhan. Because if people had raised hell about it on the streets of Wuhan, that would have gotten out. Social media, phones, it would have gotten out. The Chinese communists would not have been able to suppress everything.

“The mayor of Wuhan even suggested that the central government prevented him from revealing details about the epidemic until January 20.” He knew all about it, but the ChiCom government, Beijing, refused to let him reveal details. “Considering the first public announcements came out of Wuhan on January 1, we can assume that Xi had a sense of the danger prior to that,” in December. We know he did.

“Clearly, downplaying the disease wasn’t working –” Saying that it’s nontransmissible or noncontagious wasn’t working because Wuhan was being devastated. So now it was time for the ChiCom Communist Party to get serious. “But how serious? Would it provide full cooperation to the international community? Would being seen as the source of this virus hurt its international image?” This is what they think about.

They did everything they could to hide the fact that this thing was theirs. They did everything they could to hide that it had a center that was Wuhan. And this says they didn’t cooperate because they didn’t want people to think there was anything to cooperate about. There is nothing to see here, was the ChiCom attitude.

Now, many of you still think, “Okay. That’s ’cause they weaponized it, Rush ” Okay, if you want to stick with that, do so, but there’s more here. “There was a darker dimension.” There always is when talking about communist governments. “The more Beijing cooperated, the less the disease stood to affect other countries. This includes countries China sees as a threat to its existence, like the United States. Why should China suffer the effects of a pandemic while others stayed safe — and increased their strength relative to China — based on China’s own costly experience?”

He’s asking this rhetorically. There’s no way if this thing was real, if it starts in a lab in Wuhan and if it is this deadly virus, his theory is there’s no way the Chinese are gonna allow this to stay in their country only. They’re gonna make sure they’re not the only ones affected by it. Now, this is still a distance from creating a weapon on purpose. His theory again here is that it happened, however it happened, in a lab, the wet market. They tried to suppress it. They tried to ignore it. They tried to act like there’s nothing to see here, not contagious, not transmissible.

But when all that failed because it was the exact opposite of what they were lying about, when they realized how deadly it was, the ChiCom government made a decision that they weren’t gonna be the only country affected by it because that would lead to a vast economic disadvantage. If they were gonna be hurt by this, then by golly, by gosh, other nations were gonna be.

Now, this theory — this is the way they think and act – “is inimical to human decency.” But, folks, they’re communist. You know, we have not taught communism properly in the schools in this country for at least 30 years, since the 1980s. And we have to consider that Xi Jinping and the ChiCom Politburo came up with a way to share the effects of this virus with everybody else in the world to make sure they were not the only ones damaged by it.

The way it’s written here: “Xi Jinping has produced the greatest program of ethnic cleansing in the world today. He has curtailed freedoms in China severely and is the father of the panopticon state. His incessant military buildup threatens neighbors while using economic and other subversive means to erode the sovereignty of countries around the world. We should not assume it was beyond his imagining to withhold a degree of support from the international community to ensure that China would not suffer alone.”

In other words, these are communists. They treat their own citizens horribly. They don’t care. If something like this is gonna wreck them, then they’re gonna make sure they’re not the only ones that suffer, either reputational damage — they don’t want it thought that these viruses emanate, originate in China. They don’t want that. And they don’t want any economic damage. So it’s a fascinating theory. And there’s more to it. However, we have to take an obscene profit time-out.

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RUSH: Let me share with you how this piece is concluded by Mr. Lowsen. He says: “None of this can prove whether or when Xi made a deliberate decision to withhold information in order to imperil,” the world so that the damage suffered in China would be spread around. Can’t prove it. “However, as a long-time student and admirer of China, it is with great sadness I must concede that such a state — and its increasingly paranoid leader — might very well provide less than full cooperation to stem the pandemic of the century in the crass pursuit of its own -” Look. He’s just covering his bases here.

There is no way that — and this theory is extremely valid. Look. A lot of people do believe that this is not Xi Jinping discovering one day that there’s this bad virus that might wipe out his country so he’s gonna make sure it wipes out others. There are people who think that they concocted this thing in the lab on purpose for the exact reasons and purpose — in other words, a brilliantly conceived, flawlessly executed plan that we now see the results of, there are people that think that.

For those of you in the Drive-By Media, I’m not saying that ’cause I don’t know. I’m just sharing with you the theory of a ChiCom expert. And the theory, to me, resonates. It has a lot of ingredients that dovetail perfectly with how communists operate and how they think, how their number one objective in life is deceit. They lie to themselves and their people. The Soviet Union constantly told their own people that they were the dominant economic power of the world. They do nothing but lie constantly to people.

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RUSH: “China Didn’t Warn Public of Likely Pandemic for Six Key Days.” The ChiComs “Didn’t Warn Public of Likely Pandemic for Six Key Days.” Not Donald Trump didn’t warn. Not Donald Trump didn’t see. The ChiComs.

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RUSH: Cortez, Colorado. This is Jim. Great to have you Jim. How you doing, sir?

CALLER: Oh, I’m just doing great out here, Rush. I’ve been listening in the days prior to your visits to Fort Collins, Colorado.

RUSH: Ah, that would be Dan’s Bake Sale.

CALLER: That’s correct. But I want to tell you, I’m a geologist. I worked internationally, you know, all over the world, in Afghanistan and central Asia. And I’ll tell you, the Chinese don’t play by the same rules we do.

RUSH: I know. That’s right.

CALLER: We just finished coming back from Iceland, and at the airport — this was January 19th — at the airport were a bunch of Chinese in masks, which was rather odd.

RUSH: You were at the airport where? Where was this?

CALLER: Reykjavik, Iceland.

RUSH: You were in Reykjavik.

CALLER: Correct.

RUSH: And there’s some Chinese there traveling, and they were wearing masks?

CALLER: Right. We went to the Blue Lagoon, and in the Blue Lagoon the Chinese had something over their face in the water.

RUSH: That’s January 19th, you say was the date?

CALLER: That’s correct.

RUSH: And you’re asking what did the ChiComs know and when did they know it?

CALLER: You know, I just observe. I mean, I’ve observed them all over the world and they just don’t play by the same rules. It’s just ridiculous.

RUSH: You know, I agree. But that doesn’t even cover it. And I’ve heard people describe they don’t play by the same rules. That doesn’t even cover it. And it’s not just the Chinese communists. Communists must deceive. Communism is a lie. It promotes utopia. It is a lie. Everything about it is a lie for which they must deceive people. It’s way beyond they have a different set of rules.

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RUSH: Chicago. This is Inga. It’s great to have you with us on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. How are you?

RUSH: Fine. Thank you.

CALLER: Good. Well, I’m calling today because a story came out — quietly — in Chicago that our governor arranged for a purchase of PPE from China, and it went under the radar.

RUSH: Now, wait, wait, wait. PPE. You mean masks?

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: Masks, gloves, all sorts of protective equipment for health care.

RUSH: Okay, and your mayor, is the estimable J.K., J.P., J.J., whatever, Pritzker?

CALLER: He is the governor, yes.

RUSH: Oh, governor. I’m sorry. Right. Governor. Governor. Yeah.

CALLER: Yes. Now, I’m a capitalist. I believe in a free-market economy. But I wanted to get your input on this. I believe that lining China’s pockets in the wake of everything that has been caused by China really is a contradiction in terms.

RUSH: I agree.

CALLER: We should protect our workers —

RUSH: I agree.

CALLER: — but what’s the cost?

RUSH: I agree.

CALLER: What’s the justifiable tradeoff?

RUSH: I agree. The reason that this has all happened… There are many reasons for it — and some of them, frankly, were well-intentioned. But over the years there has been a push toward globalism as a political factor.

And that has meant that powerful nations have had to take steps to assist less powerful nations to become strong economically. So the effort to spread the wealth and buy things from China, Bangladesh, Vietnam. It’s not just buying from China. A lot of other places too.

Then there has been the globalist push that has recognized that for globalism to really manifest itself, the United States has to be taken down a peg or two in terms of economic power. It cannot be as dominant, because we don’t want the United States to lead the world. We want a separate government to lead the world that’s rooted in Europe, not the United States. So we gotta take ’em down.

And there have been a number of Americans who’ve agreed with this premise. Then you add to it the fact that however it happened, manufacturing base and many things left America for cheap labor, cheaper labor prices. And not just in China, but Vietnam and India, a number of other places, over the course of a number of years. And during all of these years I just have to say there’s been one guy warning everybody that we’re being screwed.

There’s been one guy warning everybody that we’re being cheated. And there’s been one guy warning everybody that our leaders are stupid to have done this. And it’s Donald Trump. All the way back in the early nineties and in early 2000, before he ever became or thought to become a candidate, whenever you saw him interviewed about anything, he would bring up China. He’s been really a singular voice trying to warn people about China. And as he campaigned, he campaigned on the same premise, got elected on the same premise.

He got into a kerfuffle yesterday with some people in the press over things like this, and he kept talking about how he’s getting even with China. You could tell that there was a disconnect in the room. Trump was talking about how, through trade deals and tariffs, the Chinese are now promising to buy American and that they’re sending — he kept throwing the number $250 billion they’re buying this and they’re buying this for $250 billion.

Now, Trump believes that people should be overwhelmingly impressed by this and proud of it because it represents a Draconian turnaround in Chinese-American policy. The press sitting there is clueless. They don’t understand what he’s talking about. To them $250 billion doesn’t mean anything. It’s not a big amount of money when talking about world commerce.

So they see Trump as just bragging about something that’s meaningless. He’s trying to tell them that he has turned the tables and the Chinese are now paying us, they are promising to buy from us and our farmers and so forth, and that we are exacting a mild form of reciprocity because now it’s a two-way street, not just a one-way street. And he thinks it’s a good start, and he thinks the tariffs with China have already been productive.

And I can tell watching the briefing that the people in that room that he’s talking to literally don’t get it. They don’t understand why it’s such a big deal, $250 — he’ll sit there and he’ll say the Chinese are now spending billions and billions on America. They’re buying billions and billions and billionS. And the looks on the press corps faces are just empty. They don’t get it because they don’t get the problem to begin with. But he always has.

The problem with Chinese components, do how much of our antibiotic base comes from China? It is staggering. Medicine, I mean, how much of our antibiotic medicine, the prescriptions that you call your local drug pusher — ah. Sorry. Pharmacy. A lot of these things come from China. More than you would know. And something has to be done about it. And it’s all wrapped up in the slow evolution of American manufacturing transferring to Mexico and China, India, where the labor has been cheaper.

And this is, by the way, it’s concomitant with people supporting illegal immigration. Get people in the country that don’t have a bunch of big demands economically. They just want this, a little bit of work for nothing, they’ll do things Americans won’t do, they’ll vote Democrat as a bonus. Transferring American manufacturing overseas and replacing that work and that tax base with a bunch of potential Democrat voters that are basically going to be a permanent underclass, that’s Democrat Party politics 101.