III 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 553 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Government of the People’s 

Republic of China made multiple serious mistakes in the early stages 

of the COVID–19 outbreak that heightened the severity and spread 

of the ongoing COVID–19 pandemic, including the intentional spread 

of misinformation to downplay the risks of COVID–19, a refusal to 

cooperate with international health authorities, internal censorship of 

doctors and journalists, and a malicious disregard for the health of 

ethnic minorities. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 24, 2020 

Mrs. BLACKBURN (for herself and Mr. COTTON) submitted the following 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Government 

of the People’s Republic of China made multiple serious 

mistakes in the early stages of the COVID–19 outbreak 

that heightened the severity and spread of the ongoing 

COVID–19 pandemic, including the intentional spread 

of misinformation to downplay the risks of COVID–19, 

a refusal to cooperate with international health authorities, internal censorship of doctors and journalists, and 

a malicious disregard for the health of ethnic minorities. 

Whereas records of the Government of the People’s Republic 

of China suggest that the first human became infected 


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•SRES 553 IS 

with COVID–19 on November 17, 2019, in the Hubei 

Province of China; 

Whereas, on December 27, 2019, Zhang Jixian, a doctor 

from the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Chinese and Western Medicine, alerted health authorities in China that 

several individuals exhibiting mysterious, flu-like symptoms, were infected with a novel strain of coronavirus; 

Whereas Dr. Yu Wenbin and a team of researchers from 

Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden reported that 

the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market greatly contributed to the spread of COVID–19 throughout the city of 

Wuhan; 

Whereas, after being informed of cases of a dangerous new 

strain of coronavirus concentrated around the Huanan 

Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, the Government of 

the People’s Republic of China waited 5 days to shut 

down the market; 

Whereas Zhou Xianwang, the mayor of Wuhan, stated that 

5,000,000 of the 14,000,000 residents of Wuhan left 

Wuhan before the Government of the People’s Republic 

of China imposed a lockdown; 

Whereas, on December 30, 2019, Ai Fen, the director of the 

emergency department of Wuhan Central Hospital, 

shared a diagnostic report on the then unknown COVID– 

19 virus with a group of doctors through the social media 

application WeChat; 

Whereas, on December 30, 2019, Dr. Li Wenliang, warned 

his medical school classmates of an outbreak of an unknown SARS-like virus through WeChat; 


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Whereas, on December 31, 2019, Wuhan Central Hospital 

authorities formally reprimanded Ai Fen for ‘‘spreading 

rumors’’ about the virus; 

Whereas, on January 1, 2020, an official at the Hubei Provincial Health Commission ordered at least 1 private 

genomics testing company to cease testing samples of a 

SARS-like virus from Wuhan and to destroy all existing 

samples of the virus; 

Whereas, on January 3, 2020, the Public Security Bureau of 

Wuhan detained, questioned, and forced Dr. Li Wenliang 

and 7 other doctors to sign a letter confessing that 

Wenliang had made ‘‘false comments’’ that ‘‘severely disturbed the social order’’; 

Whereas, on January 3, 2020, the leading public health authority in China, the National Health Commission, directed all research institutions in China to cease publicly 

publishing any information related to a then unknown 

SARS-like virus and ordered them to destroy existing 

samples of the virus or transfer them to approved testing 

sites; 

Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first 

asked permission to study COVID–19 in China on January 6, 2020, but was barred by the Government of the 

People’s Republic of China from entering the country 

until mid-February; 

Whereas authorities of the Government of the People’s Republic of China first publicly confirmed the existence of 

COVID–19 on January 9, 2020, 14 days after the presence of a novel strain of coronavirus was internally confirmed; 


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Whereas the National Health Commission of China publicly 

denied that COVID–19 was transmissible through person-to-person contact until January 15, 2020, despite 

having uncovered contrary evidence in late December and 

having been alerted of the transmissibility of COVID–19 

on January 1, 2020; 

Whereas, on January 18, 2020, more than 10,000 families 

attended the annual Lunar New Year Banquet of 

Wuhan, which was organized and sponsored by the 

Wuhan city government; 

Whereas the People’s Daily, the largest newspaper in China, 

first reported on the coronavirus on January 21, 2020, 

nearly a month after the virus was internally confirmed; 

Whereas, on February 7, 2020, 1 month after checking into 

Wuhan Central Hospital, Dr. Li Wenliang died of a severe case of COVID–19; 

Whereas the COVID–19 outbreak has disproportionately 

harmed the persecuted Uyghur Muslim minority of China 

as a result of actions taken by the Government of the 

People’s Republic of China; 

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

detained more than 1,000,000 Uyghur Muslims and 

other ethnic minorities in ‘‘re-education camps’’, where 

crowded and unsanitary conditions make the camps 

hotspots for viral disease and leave prisoners at an elevated risk of contracting COVID–19; 

Whereas, as reported by the Uyghur Human Rights Project, 

and corroborated by video evidence and Radio Free Asia, 

an unannounced and strictly enforced quarantine of millions of residents of the predominantly Uyghur Muslim 

Xinjiang Province of China around January 24, 2020, reVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:43 Mar 25, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR553.IS SR553

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sulted in mass starvation and shortages of basic medical 

supplies; 

Whereas, on February 25, 2020, Xinhua News Service reported that the Government of the People’s Republic of 

China had ‘‘re-located’’ 30,000 Uyghur laborers to temporarily shuttered factories in the Hotan prefecture, exposing them to health risks that the Government of the 

People’s Republic of China determined were unacceptable 

for the ethnically Han majority; 

Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the 

premier infectious disease research institution in the 

world, was well situated at the beginning of the COVID– 

19 outbreak to both assist the response of the people and 

Government of the People’s Republic of China and prepare the people and Government of the United States to 

handle the virus in the case of international spread; 

Whereas the National Health Commission of China failed to 

include individuals who tested positive for COVID–19 but 

remained asymptomatic in its daily tally of confirmed 

COVID–19 cases, hampering the ability of public health 

authorities in the United States to accurately account for 

the rate of spread and the health risks of the virus; 

Whereas a Foreign Ministry Spokesman of the Government 

of the People’s Republic of China, Zhao Lijian, claimed 

that COVID–19 originated in the United States and that 

the United States Army brought COVID–19 to Wuhan to 

wage biological warfare on China; 

Whereas other officials of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, including scientists working on the 

COVID–19 response of China, the Ambassador to South 

Africa of China, and the Ambassador to Australia of 


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China, have claimed that there is no evidence that 

COVID–19 originated in China; 

Whereas, on March 4, 2020, Xinhua News Agency, an official 

mouthpiece of the Government of the People’s Republic 

of China, published an article threatening to cut off medical supply exports to the United States and ‘‘plunge [the 

United States] into the mighty sea of coronavirus’’; 

Whereas, on March 17, 2020, the Government of the People’s 

Republic of China expelled nationals of the United States 

working at the Wall Street Journal, the Washington 

Post, and the New York Times, reducing the spread of 

reliable information on the COVID–19 outbreak in 

China; and 

Whereas a study by the University of Southampton found 

that if the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

had taken action 3 weeks earlier, the spread of COVID– 

19 would be reduced by 95 percent globally: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) calls on the Government of the People’s Re3 public of China to— 

4 (A) publicly state that there is no evidence 

5 that COVID–19 originated anywhere else but 

6 China; 

7 (B) denounce the baseless conspiracy that 

8 the United States Army placed COVID–19 in 

9 Wuhan; 

10 (C) revoke the expulsion of journalists of 

11 the United States; 


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1 (D) end the detainment of Uyghur Mus2 lims and other persecuted ethnic minorities; and 

3 (E) end all forced labor programs; 

4 (2) condemns— 

5 (A) the censorship of the Government of 

6 the People’s Republic of China of doctors and 

7 journalists during the early days of the 

8 COVID–19 outbreak, particularly the treatment 

9 of the deceased Dr. Li Wenliang; 

10 (B) the refusal of the Government of the 

11 People’s Republic of China to allow scientists 

12 from the Centers for Disease Control and Pre13 vention to assist its response to COVID–19 for 

14 more than a month after cooperation was of15 fered, needlessly endangering the lives of its 

16 own citizens and hampering the early attempts 

17 of the United States to learn more about 

18 COVID–19; and 

19 (C) the duplicitous denial of the National 

20 Health Commission of China of the person-to21 person transmissibility of COVID–19; and 

22 (3) calls for the Director-General of the World 

23 Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom 

24 Ghebreyesus, to retract highly misleading statements 

25 of support for the response of the Government of the 


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1 People’s Republic of China to COVID–19, especially 

2 his praise for the ‘‘commitment from top leadership 

3 [of the Government of the People’s Republic of 

4 China], and the transparency they have dem5 onstrated’’. 

Æ 


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