Should Chinese Communist Party Officials Who Concealed or Distorted Information About the Coronavirus Pandemic Face Sanctions? (S. 3600)

What is S. 3600?

(Updated June 9, 2020)

This bill — the Li Wenliang Global Public Health Accountability Act — would authorize the president to impose property- and visa-blocking sanctions on foreign individuals and entities involved in deliberate acts to conceal or distort information about a public health emergency of international concern, including the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Specifically, it would freeze the financial & property assets of sanctioned entities & individuals, in addition to barring sanctioned individuals from entering the U.S. The bill is named after Dr. Li Wenliang, who was a doctor in a hospital located in Wuhan, China that spread word among doctors about the spread of COVID-19, and was publicly admonished by local police with the endorsement of the Chinese Communist Party for his “rumor mongering”. Li later contracted COVID-19 and died of the illness.

The president would be authorized to impose sanctions on:

• A government official (or a senior associate of such an official) who is responsible for or complicit in deliberate acts to conceal or distort information about an international public health emergency, or who benefits financially from such acts.

• A foreign person or entity that has materially assisted or supported such acts.

This legislation would be modeled after the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allowed the imposition of sanctions on individuals & entities involved with the perpetration of human rights violations.

Argument in favor

The Chinese Communist Party officials who suppressed information about the emergence of COVID-19 before it turned into a global pandemic should face financial sanctions & be barred from entering the U.S. This bill would make that happen and serve as a warning about the importance of sharing vital information during public health crises.

Argument opposed

While it’s true that the Chinese Communist Party wasn’t transparent during the early days of the pandemic, imposing sanctions on CCP officials will only lead to a further deterioration of relations between the U.S. and China when there is already considerable strain because of the trade war, China’s South China Sea expansionism, and North Korea’s nuclear program.

Impact

Foreign officials & entities who conceal or distort information about a global public health emergency; U.S. agencies responsible for implementing sanctions; and the president.

Cost of S. 3600

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced this legislation to sanction foreign officials who suppress or distort information about international public health crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic which originated in Wuhan, China:

“Dr. Li tried to warn his country and the world about the Wuhan coronavirus, but he was silenced by the Chinese Communist Party. By hiding the truth about the virus, the CCP turned a regional health problem into a global catastrophe. In honor of Dr. Li, our bill seeks to punish foreign officials responsible for suppressing information about international health crises, including the Wuhan virus.”

The lead sponsor of this bill’s House companion, Rep. John Curtis (R-UT), added:

“As Dr. Li Wenliang said, ‘A Healthy Society Shouldn’t Only Have One Voice.’ By suppressing critical public health information, officials in China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and elsewhere have demonstrated that they care more about maintaining their grip on power than the health and wellbeing of their people. The Li Wenliang Global Public Health Accountability Act — named after the heroic Chinese doctor whistleblower — will ensure that dictators and their cronies think twice before once allowing a local health crisis to spiral out of control into a pandemic that endangers the globe.”

This legislation has the support of four Republican cosponsors. The House companion bill has the support of eight Republican cosponsors.

Of Note: The Chinese government has faced criticism for failing to share information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) and suppressing doctors who attempted to disclose that information. Here’s a look at a timeline, compiled in part by Axios, of the Chinese Communist Party’s actions after the start of the outbreak:

• Mid-December 2019: On December 10th one of the earliest known coronavirus patients, Wei Guixian, began feeling ill. On December 16th, he was admitted to the Wuhan Central Hospital with infections in both lungs.

• December 27th: Health officials in Wuhan were alerted that a novel coronavirus is the cause of the illness.

• December 30th: Ai Fen, a director at Wuhan Central Hospital, posted information on We Chat about the new virus. She was reprimanded & told not to spread information about the virus. Another doctor Wuhan, Li Wenliang, shared information about the new virus in a private WeChat group to warn the group members and their families to take protective measures. Li’s information was circulated more broadly on the Chinese internet and he was questioned by his hospital’s supervision department.

• December 31st: China notified the World Health Organization’s (WHO) China office that it is dealing with cases of an unknown illness and ordered the closure of the “wet market” they think is related to the virus’ spread. Taiwanese officials warned the WHO that they observed evidence of human-to-human transmission of an “atypical pneumonia” similar to SARS that required patient isolation.

• January 1st, 2020: An official at the Hubei Provincial Health Commission ordered labs to stop testing samples of the novel virus and to destroy existing samples. The Wuhan Public Security Bureau questions eight doctors who posted information about the illness on social media.

• January 2nd: Chinese researchers mapped the genome of the novel coronavirus but don’t make the information public.

• January 3rd: Police from the Wuhan Public Security Bureau interrogated Li and issued him a formal written reprimand for “making false comments on the internet”, made him sign an admonition letter not to do it again, and warned him that he could be prosecuted. China's National Health Commission orders labs not to disclose information to the public and to either destroy virus samples or send them to government labs.

• January 8th: Li contracted the coronavirus at the hospital after returning to work. He was admitted to the intensive care unit four days later. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese scientists have identified the new coronavirus.

• January 9th: The Chinese government announced that it mapped the coronavirus genome.

• January 11th: A team at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center published a sequence of the coronavirus genome's, prompting anger from the Chinese CDC which temporarily shuttered the lead scientist's lab.

• January 12th: The Chinese CDC, Wuhan Institute of Virology, and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences jointly publish their genomic data.

• January 11-17th: The Wuhan Health Commission insisted there were no new cases of coronavirus.

• January 14th: The WHO announced that Chinese health officials have found “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.” In a confidential meeting the same day, the head of Chinese National Health Commission indicated that “clustered cases suggest that human-to-human transmission is possible.”

• January 15th: The patient who became the first confirmed U.S. case departed Wuhan and arrived in the U.S.

• Mid-January: Recordings of WHO meetings obtained by the Associated Press reveal that despite the agency's public praise of China's response, its expert epidemiologists were growing frustrated by China's refusal to share critical information with the agency.
  

• January 20th: Chinese President Xi made his first public comments on the virus, and a leading Chinese epidemiologist publicly announced for the first time that the virus was transmissible from person-to-person.

• January 21st: China’s political commission in charge of law & order warns that “anyone who deliberately delays and hides the reporting of [virus] cases out of his or her own self-interest will be nailed on the pillar of shame for eternity.” (The warning was later removed.)

• January 23rd: The WHO announced that coronavirus is transmissible from person-to-person. China imposed a lockdown of Wuhan and three other cities on lockdown after roughly 5 million people left the city without being screened for the virus.

• January 28th: Top officials at the WHO travel to Beijing to meet with President Xi & senior Chinese officials to request information.

• January 29th: The WHO announced China would accept help from an international team of experts.

• January 30th: Dr. Tedros, the leader of the WHO, declared an international public health emergency and said “the Chinese government is to be congratulated for the extraordinary measures it has taken to contain the outbreak” and that he has “absolutely no doubt about China’s commitment to transparency”.

• January 31st: Li posted on social media about his experience at the police station with a copy of his letter of admonition, and the post went viral.

• February 6th: Li died of coronavirus.

• March 11th: The WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.

Media:

• Sponsoring Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) Press Release

• Axios (Context)