IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 944 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the People’s 
Republic of China should be held accountable for its handling of COVID- 
19. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 28, 2020 
Mr. MAST submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the People’s Republic of China should be held account-
able for its handling of COVID-19. 
Whereas the first reported case of Coronavirus Disease 2019 
(commonly referred to as ‘‘COVID-19’’) was reported as 
early as November 17, 2019; 
Whereas the first human-to-human transmission of the dis-
ease was recorded by doctors in Wuhan, China on De-
cember 8, 2019; 
Whereas the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission did not 
inform the World Health Organization (WHO) of the 
outbreak until December 31, 2019; 
Whereas Chinese social media censors curbed alerts of the 
outbreak to the public, including by blocking a com-
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•HRES 944 IH 
prehensive list of coronavirus-related terms from online 
discussion; 
Whereas Dr. Li Wenliang, a physician at Wuhan Central hos-
pital who warned his colleagues of the possible outbreak 
of COVID-19 in December 2019, was summoned and ad-
monished by Wuhan police for ‘‘making false comments 
on the Internet’’, and later died of the virus; 
Whereas, on January 3, 2020, China’s National Health Com-
mission (NHC) ordered institutions ‘‘not to publish any 
information related to the unknown disease’’ and ordered 
labs to ‘‘transfer any samples they had to designated 
testing institutions or to destroy them’’; 
Whereas the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, was not notified by his 
Chinese colleagues of COVID-19 until January 3, 2020, 
47 days after the first reported case of the virus; 
Whereas nearly six weeks after doctors in Wuhan raised the 
possibility of human-to-human transmission of the virus, 
Chinese officials continued to deny any recorded cases of 
such transmissions; 
Whereas Chinese authorities did not begin taking steps to-
ward locking down the city of Wuhan until January 23, 
2020, over two months after the first reported case of 
COVID-19; 
Whereas critics of China’s slow response to the outbreak, in-
cluding Chinese businessman Ren Zhiqiang, were re-
ported to have disappeared; and 
Whereas a growing consensus of United States officials now 
believe that COVID-19 originated at the Wuhan Institute 
of Virology as part of efforts to study and combat vi-
ruses: Now, therefore, be it 
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•HRES 944 IH 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) the global outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 
2019 (commonly referred to as ‘‘COVID-19’’) is a 
direct result of the People’s Republic of China’s long 
and appalling record of human rights abuses, includ-
ing its suppression of the freedom of expression, as 
well as its aggressive domestic and global propa-
ganda campaign; 
(2) the People’s Republic of China should be 
held accountable for its handling of the COVID-19; 
and 
(3) the United States and other countries 
should permanently withhold payments on debts 
owed to the People’s Republic of China in amounts 
equal to the public costs incurred by such countries 
relating to COVID-19. 
Æ 
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