The Chinese Communist Party lied to the world about coronavirus.

As a result, 14,613 people have died worldwide. Over 300,000 are infected.

China must be held responsible.

The Chinese government originally reported its first cases of COVID-19 in mid-January. This was just prior to the United States' first known case, a man who had traveled from Wuhan to Washington. However, it has recently come to light that the first case in China actually occurred mid-November, nearly two months prior to China's first warnings given to WHO. Doctors who discovered the new strain of coronavirus were instructed by the government to destroy their samples and all documentation. Whistleblowers were silenced. At least three citizen journalists "disappeared" after speaking out against the government's censorship of COVID-19.

Chinese doctors had observed human-to-human transmission since late December. However, on January 14th, the WHO tweeted, "Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China." By the end of January, 213 people had died. The result of the Chinese government's lies and WHO's assistance is a global pandemic. Multiple states, most notably Washington, New York, and California, have issued lockdowns. Businesses, schools, gyms, movie theaters, restaurants-all closed. The global economy has been put on pause. President Trump has asked citizens to avoid groups of ten or more. People are encouraged to stay in their homes as much as they can in an attempt to "slow the spread."

Life across the world has come to a screeching halt.

There is a lesson to be learned from China's incompetent response to COVID-19.

It's time for America to break up with China.

It is time to stop our hypocritical support of a government that puts thousands of Muslims and Buddhists in concentration camps and welded its infected citizens into their homes in an attempt to control COVID. It is time to stop supporting a totalitarian regime that abuses its own people daily.

China recently threatened to withhold crucial materials needed for the manufacture of antibiotics from Americans. The lives of sick American children depend on the United States' relationship with China. China cannot be trusted. The United States is more than capable of filling the gaps in trade that a break from China would form.

It's time to bring the jobs back home. It's time to begin functioning as an independent nation.

Unfortunately, it took a global pandemic and thousands of deaths to fully unveil the downside of globalization. COVID-19 has fully exposed China, not as a global superpower, but as an authoritarian regime that consistently abuses its own people. This was always known, of course. COVID has simply made it impossible to ignore. The United States must maintain her integrity and patriotism by refusing to continue its policy of complacency.

The United States should begin manufacturing many of the goods normally obtained from China. Since it is unfortunately not realistic to produce all goods typically acquired from China, those chosen for United States production must be crucial to the well-being of the nation. First on this list should be antibiotics, as China supplies between 80-90% of core materials needed for medicines used in the United States. The travel ban and tariffs should not be lifted until China shuts down its camps and its wet markets. If China wants America's support, they're going to have to clean up. Many will say this is an unrealistic goal, that China will never do it. Either way, these are the measures necessary in order to stop America's hypocritical support and reliance on a nation that continuously violates human rights and lies to the national community. If America is to continue to be a beacon of freedom and liberty on a global scale, the hypocritical support of the CCP must come to an end.

It is time for America to become independent, once again.