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.

III 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 doc- VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:16 Mar 25, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR552.IS SR552 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •SRES 552 IS tors 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 in- formation about COVID–19 on WeChat; Whereas, on January 1, the Hubei provincial health commis- sion 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 municipal health com- mission 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 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- VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:16 Mar 25, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR552.IS SR552 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •SRES 552 IS sons 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 Re- public 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 Re- public 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 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 Senate— 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 outbreak; 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 region, 10 Europe, and the rest of the world; 11 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:16 Mar 25, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR552.IS SR552 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •SRES 552 IS (3) finds that the Government of the People’s 1 Republic of China should be held accountable for the 2 impact, of its decision to hide the emergence and 3 spread of COVID–19, on the lives and livelihoods of 4 the people of the United States and other nations; 5 (4) calls for an international investigation led 6 by public health officials from the United States and 7 other affected nations to determine how the handling 8 by the Government of the People’s Republic of 9 China of the COVID–19 outbreak prior to March 10 11, 2020, contributed to the emergence of the 11 COVID–19 global pandemic; and 12 (5) calls on the international community to— 13 (A) quantify the harm caused, by the han- 14 dling of the COVID–19 outbreak by the Gov- 15 ernment of the People’s Republic of China, to 16 the health and economic well-being of the peo- 17 ple of the United States and other nations; and 18 (B) design a mechanism for delivering 19 compensation from the Government of the Peo- 20 ple’s Republic of China to all affected nations 21 for the harm caused by its decision to hide the 22 emergence and spread of COVID–19 during the 23 initial weeks of the outbreak. 24 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:16 Mar 25, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\SR552.IS SR552 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS