IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 907 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives 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, which include the Chinese Government’s intentional spread of misinformation to downplay 

the risks of the virus, a refusal to cooperate with international health 

authorities, internal censorship of doctors and journalists, and malicious 

disregard for the health of ethnic minorities. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 24, 2020 

Mr. BANKS (for himself, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. KEVIN HERN of Oklahoma, Mr. 

BUCSHON, Mr. ROGERS of Alabama, Mr. LOUDERMILK, Mr. KELLY of 

Mississippi, Mr. GALLAGHER, Mr. KINZINGER, Mr. SMITH of Missouri, 

Mr. ABRAHAM, Mr. WALTZ, Mr. GONZALEZ of Ohio, Mr. RIGGLEMAN, 

Mr. HAGEDORN, Mr. NORMAN, Mr. CRAWFORD, Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio, 

Ms. STEFANIK, and Mr. WEBER of Texas) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives 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, which include the Chinese Government’s intentional spread of 

misinformation to downplay the risks of the virus, a 

refusal to cooperate with international health authorities, 


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•HRES 907 IH 

internal censorship of doctors and journalists, and malicious disregard for the health of ethnic minorities. 

Whereas Chinese Government records suggest that the first 

human became infected with COVID–19 on November 

17, 2019, in China’s Hubei Province; 

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

from the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Chinese and Western Medicine alerted China’s health authorities 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 the Chinese Government waited five days after being 

informed of cases of a dangerous new strain of 

coronavirus concentrated around Wuhan’s open-air market to shut down of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan; 

Whereas Zhou Xianwang, the mayor of Wuhan, stated that 

5,000,000 of Wuhan’s 14,000,000 residents left the city 

before the Chinese Government imposed a lockdown; 

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

Central Hospital’s emergency department, 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 over WeChat; 


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•HRES 907 IH 

Whereas, on December 31, 2019, Wuhan Central Hospital 

authorities formally reprimanded Fei for ‘‘spreading rumors’’ about the virus; 

Whereas, on January 1, 2020, an official at the Hubei Provincial Health Commission ordered at least one 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, Wuhan’s Public Security Bureau detained, questioned and forced Dr. Li Wenliang 

and seven other doctors to sign a letter confessing he 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 Chinese research institutions 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 first asked permission to study COVID–19 within China on January 6, 

2020, but was barred by the Chinese Government from 

entering the country until mid-February; 

Whereas Chinese authorities 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; 

Whereas China’s National Health Commission publicly denied 

COVID–19 was person-to-person transmissible until January 15, 2020, despite having uncovered contrary eviVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:22 Mar 24, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR907.IH HR907

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dence in late December and being alerted of the transmissibility of COVID–19 on January 1, 2020; 

Whereas, on January 18, 2020, over 10,000 families attended 

the city of Wuhan’s annual Lunar New Year Banquet, 

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, one 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 China’s persecuted Uyghur Muslim minority as a 

result of the following actions taken by the Chinese Government— 

(1) the detention of over 1,000,000 Uyghur Muslims 

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

whose crowded and unsanitary conditions makes the 

camps hotspots for viral disease and leave prisoners at an 

elevated risk of contracting COVID–19; 

(2) as reported by Uyghur Human Rights Project, 

and corroborated by video evidence and Radio Free Asia, 

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

Xinjiang Province around January 24, 2020, resulted in 

mass starvation and shortages of basic medical supplies; 

and 

(3) on February 25, 2020, Xinhua News Service reported that China had ‘‘re-located’’ 30,000 Uyghur laborers to temporarily shuttered factories in the Hotan prefecture, exposing them to health risks the Chinese GovVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:22 Mar 24, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR907.IH HR907

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ernment deemed unacceptable for the ethnically Han majority; 

Whereas the Centers for Disease Control, being the premier 

infectious disease research institution in the world, was 

well situated at the beginning of the COVID–19 outbreak 

to both assist China’s response and prepare the United 

States to handle the virus should it spread internationally; 

Whereas China’s National Health Commission failed to include individuals who tested positive for COVID–19 but 

remained asymptomatic in its daily tally of confirmed 

COVID–19 cases, hampering American public health authorities’ ability to accurately account for the health risks 

of infection and spread rate of the virus; 

Whereas Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Zhao Lijian, 

claimed that COVID–19 originated in the United States 

and that the United States Army brought the virus to 

Wuhan to wage biological warfare on China; 

Whereas other Chinese Government officials including scientists working on China’s COVID–19 response, China’s 

Ambassador to South Africa and China’s Ambassador to 

Australia 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 Chinese Government, 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, China expelled American nationals working at the Wall Street Journal, Washington 

Post, and New York Times, reducing the spread of reliVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:22 Mar 24, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR907.IH HR907

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able information on the COVID–19 outbreak in China; 

and 

Whereas a study by the University of Southampton found 

that if China had taken action 3 weeks earlier, the spread 

of coronavirus would be reduced by 95 percent globally: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) calls on the Chinese Government to— 

3 (A) publicly state that there’s no evidence 

4 that COVID–19 originated anywhere else but 

5 China; 

6 (B) denounce the baseless conspiracy that 

7 the United States Army placed COVID–19 in 

8 Wuhan; 

9 (C) revoke its expulsion of American jour10 nalists; 

11 (D) end its detainment of Uyghur Muslims 

12 and other persecuted ethnic minorities; and 

13 (E) end all forced labor programs; 

14 (2) condemns— 

15 (A) the Chinese Government’s censorship 

16 of doctors and journalists during the early days 

17 of the outbreak and particularly its treatment 

18 of the deceased Dr. Li Wenliang; 

19 (B) the Chinese Government’s refusal to 

20 allow scientists from the Centers for Disease 


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1 Control to assist its response to COVID–19 for 

2 over a month after cooperation was offered, 

3 needlessly endangering the lives of its own citi4 zens and hampering the United States early at5 tempts to learn more about COVID–19; and 

6 (C) China’s National Health Commissions’ 

7 duplicitous denial of the person-to-person trans8 missibility of COVID–19; and 

9 (3) calls for the World Health Organization Di10 rector-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to 

11 retract highly misleading statements of support for 

12 the Chinese Government’s response to COVID–19, 

13 especially his praise for the ‘‘commitment from [Chi14 na’s] top leadership, and the transparency they have 

15 demonstrated’’. 

Æ 


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