WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) —The question being debated across the medical community and in Washington: did the coronavirus pandemic start naturally or with a leak from the lab that studies coronaviruses located just miles from the wet market the Chinese say it began in.

Long-time China watchers say the country is following their standard playbook when it comes to sensitive situations: Admit nothing, deny everything, make counter-accusations.

“Whenever China starts, wolfing a big story, it’s sort of like where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And this foreign minister from China, his baseless accusations that the United States army has somehow created coronavirus. Covid-19 and leaked it to the world is absolutely insane,” said Tennessee Republican Representative Mark Green.

He added, “Leaders all over the world have studied the Art of War, from Sun Tzu. It’s a fantastic principle of warfare in that book, one of which and the common theme is deception, and I think the Chinese are masters at that.”

The Chinese foreign minister said in a written statement to the Wall Street Journal the United States “does not care about facts and truth, nor is it interested in serious scientific origin tracing.”

Experts say the Chinese made that nearly impossible with their spin and coverups at the start of the pandemic.

Now a bipartisan bill in Congress wants to hold their government responsible by allowing families of U.S. victims to sue China.

“If China had only notified people, three weeks sooner, 60% less infection and death. And that’s from Columbia University, not a bastion of conservativism. That’s their number. And if you think about the ramifications, you think about 60% of the American deaths saved. That’s a lot of human suffering caused by china’s just the delay and notifying us,” said Green.

Finding answers to what the Chinese knew and when will be difficult without the government’s cooperation.

A few years ago China successfully eliminated many of the CIA’s best human intelligence agents inside the country and their internal communications systems are notoriously difficult to intercept.