III 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 552 

Supporting an international investigation into the handling by the Government 

of the People’s Republic of China of COVID–19 and the impact of 

handling COVID–19 in that manner on the people of the United States 

and other nations. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 24, 2020 

Mr. HAWLEY (for himself, Ms. MCSALLY, Mr. CORNYN, and Mr. COTTON) 

submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 

on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Supporting an international investigation into the handling 

by the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

of COVID–19 and the impact of handling COVID–19 

in that manner on the people of the United States and 

other nations. 

Whereas the novel coronavirus (referred to in this resolution 

as ‘‘COVID–19’’) emerged in the People’s Republic of 

China and began to spread as early as November 2019; 

Whereas, by late December, dozens of citizens of the People’s 

Republic of China had fallen victim to COVID–19; 

Whereas, on December 30, Wuhan, China health authorities 

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•SRES 552 IS 

tors in response to their decisions to warn other Chinese 

citizens of the danger posed by that new disease; 

Whereas, on January 1, 2020, the Wuhan Public Security 

Bureau questioned 8 Chinese doctors who had posted information about COVID–19 on WeChat; 

Whereas, on January 1, the Hubei provincial health commission ordered laboratories to stop testing for COVID–19 

and destroy samples of the same; 

Whereas, on January 2, the Wuhan Institute of Virology 

mapped the genome of COVID–19 in order to inform development of public health interventions and medical 

treatments for COVID–19, but the Government of the 

People’s Republic of China withheld genetic information 

on COVID–19 until January 9; 

Whereas, on January 11, the Wuhan municipal health commission insisted that there were no new cases of infection 

by COVID–19; 

Whereas, on January 13, the first COVID–19 case outside of 

the People’s Republic of China was announced in Thailand; 

Whereas, on January 14, the World Health Organization announced that the Government of the People’s Republic of 

China had seen ‘‘no clear evidence of human-to-human 

transmission of the novel coronavirus’’; 

Whereas, on January 23, the Government of the People’s Republic of China began to implement quarantine measures 

to stem the spread of COVID–19 at the same time as the 

disease had already begun to proliferate throughout the 

world; 

Whereas, on March 11, the World Health Organization declared COVID–19 a global pandemic, with 118,000 perVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:16 Mar 25, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR552.IS SR552

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•SRES 552 IS 

sons infected and 4,291 dead in 114 different countries 

at the time of the announcement; 

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China 

has argued recently that COVID–19 did not originate in 

the People’s Republic of China; 

Whereas the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China has alleged that the United States Army 

may have delivered COVID–19 to the city of Wuhan in 

the People’s Republic of China; 

Whereas the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China has said, ‘‘China’s endeavor to combating 

[sic] the epidemic has bought time for [international] 

preparedness’’; and 

Whereas a University of Southampton study found that earlier intervention by the Government of the People’s Republic of China could have ‘‘significantly’’ limited the geographic spread of COVID–19: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) condemns the decision by the Government 

3 of the People’s Republic of China to hide the emer4 gence and spread of COVID–19 within its borders 

5 during the initial weeks of the outbreak; 

6 (2) assesses that the decision by the Govern7 ment of the People’s Republic of China to hide the 

8 emergence and spread of COVID–19 during that pe9 riod almost certainly contributed to the rapid spread 

10 of that disease throughout the Indo-Pacific region, 

11 Europe, and the rest of the world; 


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•SRES 552 IS 

1 (3) finds that the Government of the People’s 

2 Republic of China should be held accountable for the 

3 impact, of its decision to hide the emergence and 

4 spread of COVID–19, on the lives and livelihoods of 

5 the people of the United States and other nations; 

6 (4) calls for an international investigation led 

7 by public health officials from the United States and 

8 other affected nations to determine how the handling 

9 by the Government of the People’s Republic of 

10 China of the COVID–19 outbreak prior to March 

11 11, 2020, contributed to the emergence of the 

12 COVID–19 global pandemic; and 

13 (5) calls on the international community to— 

14 (A) quantify the harm caused, by the han15 dling of the COVID–19 outbreak by the Gov16 ernment of the People’s Republic of China, to 

17 the health and economic well-being of the peo18 ple of the United States and other nations; and 

19 (B) design a mechanism for delivering 

20 compensation from the Government of the Peo21 ple’s Republic of China to all affected nations 

22 for the harm caused by its decision to hide the 

23 emergence and spread of COVID–19 during the 

24 initial weeks of the outbreak. 

Æ 


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