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.

IV 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 identi- fied, interrogated, and reprimanded multiple doctors in response to their decisions to warn other Chinese citizens of the danger posed by this new disease; VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:34 Mar 25, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR909.IH HR909 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 909 IH 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 Com- mission 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 de- velopment 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 in- sisted 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 Thai- land; Whereas, on January 14, the World Health Organization an- nounced 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 Re- public 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 de- clared COVID–19 a global pandemic, with 118,000 per- sons infected and 4,291 dead in 114 different countries at the time of the announcement; VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:34 Mar 25, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR909.IH HR909 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 909 IH 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] prepared- ness’’; and Whereas a University of Southampton study found that ear- lier intervention by the Government of the People’s Re- public of China could have ‘‘significantly’’ limited the ge- ographic spread of COVID–19: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1 (1) condemns the decision by the Government 2 of the People’s Republic of China to hide the emer- 3 gence and spread of COVID–19 within its borders 4 during the initial weeks of the pandemic; 5 (2) assesses that the decision by the Govern- 6 ment of the People’s Republic of China to hide the 7 emergence and spread of COVID–19 during that pe- 8 riod almost certainly contributed to the rapid spread 9 of that disease throughout the Indo-Pacific, Europe, 10 and the rest of the world; 11 (3) finds that the Government of the People’s 12 Republic of China should be held accountable for the 13 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:34 Mar 25, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR909.IH HR909 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HRES 909 IH impact of its decision to hide the emergence and 1 spread of COVID–19 on the lives and livelihoods of 2 the people of the United States and other nations; 3 (4) calls for an international investigation led 4 by public health officials from the United States and 5 other affected nations to determine how the handling 6 by the Government of the People’s Republic of 7 China of the COVID–19 outbreak prior to March 8 11, 2020, contributed to the emergence of the 9 COVID–19 global pandemic; and 10 (5) calls on the international community to— 11 (A) quantify the harm caused by the han- 12 dling of the Government of the People’s Repub- 13 lic of China to the health and economic well- 14 being of the people of the United States and 15 other nations; and 16 (B) design a mechanism for delivering 17 compensation from the Government of the Peo- 18 ple’s Republic of China to all affected nations 19 for the harm caused by its decision to hide the 20 emergence and spread of COVID–19 during the 21 initial weeks of the pandemic. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:34 Mar 25, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR909.IH HR909 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS