HYDE-SMITH JOINS BILL TO SANCTION BEIJING FOR ONGOING OBSTRUCTION OF COVID ORIGINS INVESTIGATION
Penalties include Suspending, Prohibiting U.S.-China Viral Research Efforts
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today cosponsored new legislation to impose sanctions on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) if it continues to obstruct international investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coronavirus Origin Validation, Investigation, and Determination (COVID) Act of 2022 (S.3463) would authorize sanctions if the CCP fails to allow for a credible and comprehensive international investigation into the origins of COVID-19 at laboratories in Wuhan, including a review of risky research involving bat coronaviruses.
“The Chinese Communist Party's inexcusable roadblocks to legitimate scientific investigations of the coronavirus deserve a strong response by the United States and other world leaders,” Hyde-Smith said. “The sanctions outlined in this legislation could finally prompt the CCP to help us understand the origins of a health pandemic that started in China and that continues its global rampage today.”
Specifically, S.3463 would sanction the leadership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and its affiliated institutes and laboratories, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It would also suspend U.S. federal research funding across all academic fields for studies involving the CAS.
In addition, the measure would impose a prohibition on gain-of-function virus research cooperation between any U.S.-based individual or institution that receives federal funding and any People’s Republic of China-based individual or institution.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) authored the COVID Act of 2022, with these additional original cosponsors: Tim Scott (R-S.C.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and John Kennedy (R-La.).
Read the full text of S.3463 here.
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