I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7733 
To authorize the imposition of sanctions with respect to the deliberate conceal-
ment or distortion of information about public health emergencies of 
international concern, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 23, 2020 
Mr. CURTIS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, 
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
committee concerned 
A BILL 
To authorize the imposition of sanctions with respect to 
the deliberate concealment or distortion of information 
about public health emergencies of international concern, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Li Wenliang Global 
Public Health Accountability Act of 2020’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) On January 3, 2020, the leading public 
health authority in the People’s Republic of China, 
the National Health Commission, directed all Chi-
nese research institutions to cease publicly pub-
lishing any information related to a then unknown 
SARS-like virus, and ordered them to destroy exist-
ing samples of the virus or transfer them to ap-
proved testing sites. 
(2) On December 30, 2019, Dr. Li Wenliang 
warned his medical school classmates of an outbreak 
of an unknown SARS-like virus over WeChat. 
(3) On January 3, 2020, Wuhan’s Public Secu-
rity Bureau detained, questioned, and forced Dr. Li 
Wenliang and seven other doctors to sign a letter 
confessing he had made ‘‘false comments’’ that ‘‘se-
verely disturbed the social order’’. 
(4) On February 7, 2020, one month after 
checking into Wuhan Central Hospital, Dr. Li 
Wenliang died of a severe case of coronavirus dis-
ease 2019 (commonly known as ‘‘COVID-19’’). 
(5) China’s National Health Commission pub-
licly denied COVID–19 was person-to-person trans-
missible until January 15, 2020, despite having un-
covered contrary evidence in late December 2019 
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and being alerted of the transmissibility of COVID– 
19 on January 1, 2020. 
(6) China’s 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 war-
fare on China. 
(7) Other Chinese Government officials, includ-
ing scientists working on China’s COVID–19 re-
sponse, 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. 
(8) A study by the University of Southampton 
found that had China taken action 3 weeks earlier, 
the spread of COVID-19 could have been reduced by 
95 percent. 
(9) On July 21, 2020, Representative Adam 
Smith defended the Chinese Government’s hiding 
the true nature of COVID-19 when he said, ‘‘It’s 
not actually their job to warn the American people’’. 
(10) According to the World Health Organiza-
tion’s for the Use of Annex 2 of the International 
Health Regulations, China was legally obligated to 
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notify the World Health Organization about the 
COVID-19 outbreak. 
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The President may impose the 
sanctions described in subsection (b) with respect to any 
foreign person the President determines, based on credible 
evidence— 
(1) is a government official, or a senior asso-
ciate of such an official, that is responsible for, or 
complicit in, ordering, controlling, or otherwise di-
recting, or financially benefits from, acts intended to 
deliberately conceal or distort information, including 
through forced detentions or disappearances of per-
sons, about a public health emergency of inter-
national concern, including COVID-19; or 
(2) has materially assisted, sponsored, or pro-
vided financial, material, or technological support 
for, or goods or services in support of, an act de-
scribed in paragraph (1). 
(b) SANCTIONS
DESCRIBED.—The sanctions de-
scribed in this subsection are the following: 
(1) INADMISSIBILITY TO UNITED STATES.—In 
the case of a foreign person who is an individual— 
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(A) ineligibility to receive a visa to enter 
the United States or to be admitted to the 
United States; or 
(B) if the individual has been issued a visa 
or other documentation, revocation, in accord-
ance with section 221(i) of the Immigration and 
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1201(i)), of the visa 
or other documentation. 
(2) BLOCKING OF PROPERTY.— 
(A) IN
GENERAL.—The blocking, in ac-
cordance with the International Emergency 
Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), 
of all transactions in all property and interests 
in property of a foreign person if such property 
and interests in property are in the United 
States, come within the United States, or are or 
come within the possession or control of a 
United States person. 
(B) EXCEPTION
RELATING
TO
IMPORTA-
TION OF GOODS.— 
(i) IN
GENERAL.—The authority to 
block and prohibit all transactions in all 
property and interests in property under 
subparagraph (A) shall not include the au-
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thority to impose sanctions on the importa-
tion of goods. 
(ii) GOOD DEFINED.—In this subpara-
graph, the term ‘‘good’’ means any article, 
natural or manmade substance, material, 
supply, or manufactured product, including 
inspection and test equipment, and exclud-
ing technical data. 
(c) REQUESTS
BY APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL 
COMMITTEES.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 
after receiving a request that meets the require-
ments of paragraph (2) with respect to whether a 
foreign person is described in subsection (a), the 
President shall— 
(A) determine if that person is so de-
scribed; and 
(B) submit a classified or unclassified re-
port to the chairperson and ranking member of 
the committee or committees that submitted the 
request with respect to that determination that 
includes— 
(i) a statement of whether or not the 
President imposed or intends to impose 
sanctions with respect to the person; and 
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(ii) if the President imposed or in-
tends to impose sanctions, a description of 
those sanctions. 
(2) REQUIREMENTS.—A request under para-
graph (1) with respect to whether a foreign person 
is described in subsection (a) shall be submitted to 
the President in writing jointly by the chairperson 
and ranking member of one of the appropriate con-
gressional committees. 
(d) EXCEPTION TO COMPLY WITH UNITED NATIONS 
HEADQUARTERS AGREEMENT AND LAW ENFORCEMENT 
OBJECTIVES.—Sanctions under subsection (b)(1) shall 
not apply to an individual if admitting the individual into 
the United States— 
(1) would further important law enforcement 
objectives; or 
(2) is necessary to permit the United States to 
comply with the Agreement regarding the Head-
quarters of the United Nations, signed at Lake Suc-
cess June 26, 1947, and entered into force Novem-
ber 21, 1947, between the United Nations and the 
United States, or other applicable international obli-
gations of the United States. 
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