Title: A 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.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution condemns the Chinese government's decision to hide the emergence and spread of COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) within China. It also calls for an investigation by public health officials from the United States and other affected countries into how China's actions contributed to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 552 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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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 identified, 
        interrogated, and reprimanded multiple doctors 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 persons 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
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) condemns the decision by the Government of the People's 
        Republic of China to hide the emergence and spread of COVID-19 
        within its borders during the initial weeks of the outbreak;
            (2) assesses that the decision by the Government of the 
        People's Republic of China to hide the emergence and spread of 
        COVID-19 during that period almost certainly contributed to the 
        rapid spread of that disease throughout the Indo-Pacific 
        region, Europe, and the rest of the world;
            (3) finds that the Government of the People's Republic of 
        China should be held accountable for the impact, of its 
        decision to hide the emergence and spread of COVID-19, on the 
        lives and livelihoods of the people of the United States and 
        other nations;
            (4) calls for an international investigation led by public 
        health officials from the United States and other affected 
        nations to determine how the handling by the Government of the 
        People's Republic of China of the COVID-19 outbreak prior to 
        March 11, 2020, contributed to the emergence of the COVID-19 
        global pandemic; and
            (5) calls on the international community to--
                    (A) quantify the harm caused, by the handling of 
                the COVID-19 outbreak by the Government of the People's 
                Republic of China, to the health and economic well-
                being of the people of the United States and other 
                nations; and
                    (B) design a mechanism for delivering compensation 
                from the Government of the People's Republic of China 
                to all affected nations for the harm caused by its 
                decision to hide the emergence and spread of COVID-19 
                during the initial weeks of the outbreak.
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