Several prominent Conservatives have added their names to an open letter condemning China‘s efforts to conceal the spread of the coronavirus as that country’s “Chernobyl moment.”

Conservative leadership candidate Peter MacKay, Conservative defence critic James Bezan and New Brunswick Southwest MP John Williamson have all signed on along with more than 100 political representatives and foreign policy experts from around the world.

Other signatories to the letter include U.K. MP Damian Collins, who chaired the international grand committee examining privacy and social media misinformation last year, along with members of Parliament from Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic, the European Parliament and the U.K.

There are also several former ministers of foreign affairs, defence and home affairs, along with a broad range of civil society advocates and academics, including Canadian writer Jonathan Manthorpe.

When the letter first went up on Tuesday, no Canadian MPs had signed on despite there being representatives from other parliamentary institutions in allied countries.

Global News reached out to MacKay, Bezan and Williamson about their decisions to sign the letter.

Williamson responded saying the Chinese government must be held to account.

“The Chinese Communist Party dictatorship is built on force and intimidation of the Chinese people and ethnic minorities. Its rulers have no fidelity to individual freedoms, transparency or the rule of law,” he wrote in an email.

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“Beijing needs to be held accountable for its actions, at home and abroad, and not be treated as an ordinary member of the international community. I believe Canada’s ‘business as usual’ with mainland China should end.”

MacKay and Bezan have not yet responded to requests for comment but MacKay tweeted on Thursday morning with a link to the letter, saying that the Chinese government “deprived the world of our chance to react.”

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