Title: A resolution in support of 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 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 18 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 18

 In support of 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 27, 2021

  Mr. Hawley (for himself, Mr. Tillis, and Mr. Cramer) submitted the 
 following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                               Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 In support of 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, 2019, 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, 2020, the Hubei Provincial Health Commission ordered 
        laboratories to stop testing for COVID-19 and destroy samples of the 
        same;
Whereas, on January 2, 2020, 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, 2020, the Wuhan Health Commission insisted that there 
        were no new cases of infection by COVID-19;
Whereas, on January 13, 2020, the first identified COVID-19 case outside of the 
        People's Republic of China was announced in Thailand;
Whereas, on January 14, 2020, 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, 2020, 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, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a 
        global pandemic, with at least 118,000 persons infected and at least 
        4,291 dead in 114 different countries at the time of the announcement;
Whereas, by January 21, 2021, one year after the first COVID-19 case was 
        confirmed in the United States, COVID-19 had infected at least 
        97,061,592 persons and killed at least 2,080,009 in 191 different 
        countries;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China argues 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 and that COVID-19 may have originated in Italy or 
        ``separate outbreaks in multiple places in the world'';
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.'';
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;
Whereas more than 120 nations have called for an investigation of the origins of 
        COVID-19; and
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China continues to prevent a 
        credible international investigation of the origins of COVID-19, 
        including by restricting access by investigators to certain locations 
        and information in the People's Republic of China: 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 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 and free from any restrictions by the Government of the 
        People's Republic of China 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--
                    (A) to 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) to 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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