Title: Supporting an international investigation into the handling by the Government of the People's Republic of China of COVID-19 and the impact thereof 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]
[H. Res. 909 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 909

  Supporting an international investigation into the handling by the 
Government of the People's Republic of China of COVID-19 and the impact 
     thereof on the people of the United States and other nations.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 25, 2020

Ms. Stefanik submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                    the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Supporting an international investigation into the handling by the 
Government of the People's Republic of China of COVID-19 and the impact 
     thereof on the people of the United States and other nations.

Whereas the novel coronavirus, hereafter referred to 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 health authorities identified, interrogated, and 
        reprimanded multiple doctors in response to their decisions to warn 
        other Chinese citizens of the danger posed by this new disease;
Whereas, on January 1, 2020, the Wuhan Public Security Bureau questioned eight 
        Chinese doctors who had posted information on 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 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 Foreign Ministry 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 Foreign Ministry 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 House of Representatives--
            (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 pandemic;
            (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, 
        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 
                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 pandemic.
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