Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the People's Republic of China should be held accountable for its handling of COVID-19.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. RES. 944 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the People’s Republic of China should be held accountable for its handling of COVID- 19. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 28, 2020 Mr. MAST submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the People’s Republic of China should be held account- able for its handling of COVID-19. Whereas the first reported case of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (commonly referred to as ‘‘COVID-19’’) was reported as early as November 17, 2019; Whereas the first human-to-human transmission of the dis- ease was recorded by doctors in Wuhan, China on De- cember 8, 2019; Whereas the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission did not inform the World Health Organization (WHO) of the outbreak until December 31, 2019; Whereas Chinese social media censors curbed alerts of the outbreak to the public, including by blocking a com- VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:39 Apr 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR944.IH HR944 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 944 IH prehensive list of coronavirus-related terms from online discussion; Whereas Dr. Li Wenliang, a physician at Wuhan Central hos- pital who warned his colleagues of the possible outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019, was summoned and ad- monished by Wuhan police for ‘‘making false comments on the Internet’’, and later died of the virus; Whereas, on January 3, 2020, China’s National Health Com- mission (NHC) ordered institutions ‘‘not to publish any information related to the unknown disease’’ and ordered labs to ‘‘transfer any samples they had to designated testing institutions or to destroy them’’; Whereas the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, was not notified by his Chinese colleagues of COVID-19 until January 3, 2020, 47 days after the first reported case of the virus; Whereas nearly six weeks after doctors in Wuhan raised the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the virus, Chinese officials continued to deny any recorded cases of such transmissions; Whereas Chinese authorities did not begin taking steps to- ward locking down the city of Wuhan until January 23, 2020, over two months after the first reported case of COVID-19; Whereas critics of China’s slow response to the outbreak, in- cluding Chinese businessman Ren Zhiqiang, were re- ported to have disappeared; and Whereas a growing consensus of United States officials now believe that COVID-19 originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology as part of efforts to study and combat vi- ruses: Now, therefore, be it VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:39 Apr 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR944.IH HR944 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 944 IH Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep- 1 resentatives that— 2 (1) the global outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 3 2019 (commonly referred to as ‘‘COVID-19’’) is a 4 direct result of the People’s Republic of China’s long 5 and appalling record of human rights abuses, includ- 6 ing its suppression of the freedom of expression, as 7 well as its aggressive domestic and global propa- 8 ganda campaign; 9 (2) the People’s Republic of China should be 10 held accountable for its handling of the COVID-19; 11 and 12 (3) the United States and other countries 13 should permanently withhold payments on debts 14 owed to the People’s Republic of China in amounts 15 equal to the public costs incurred by such countries 16 relating to COVID-19. 17 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:39 Apr 28, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR944.IH HR944 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS