President Donald Trump is putting pressure on China now as he said that the country should face the consequences if it is knowingly responsible for spreading COVID-19 and turning it into a pandemic. The President made the highly controversial statement during the press briefing in the White House. He did say that if China just made the pandemic worse by mistake, then it would face fewer consequences for what it did.

It seems that the US intelligence community believes that China knowingly reported incorrect numbers regarding the coronavirus to the world. Still, it was highly likely that it did not know the actual numbers to be reported. The government is likely to review the actual responsibility of China for the pandemic once it is over, but since it is still grappling with the effects of the disease, it is unlikely to do so now.

There was also a report from the Associated Press, which concluded that China must have determined that COVID-19 was affecting the whole country as early as January 14. The government waited six days before it bothered to warn its citizens and the other governments in the world about what was going on. The crucial period would have infected a large number of people who were not taking any precautions at all. A study showed that if China did not delay reporting the disease within those six days, then the global number of cases would be lower by 66%. That makes the Chinese government responsible for all the deaths that have occurred in Spain, Italy, the United States, and other badly affected countries.

There has been speculation that the Chinese government did not report their actual numbers deliberately so that other countries would let their guards down. During the time that China and the World Health Organization were downplaying the disease, it seems that government personnel in other countries were buying essential medical materials and equipment and having them shipped to China.

Another grim conspiracy theory is going around, saying that China did not report the actual cases so that other countries would get infected too. That way, the Chinese economy will not be the only one severely affected by the pandemic, and then it would be in a better position to recover once the spread of the disease has died down. The truth about the disease may never be fully known since the Chinese government is doing its best to cover it up.