Republican and Democratic heavy-hitters from the intelligence and political worlds are calling for legislative changes to hold China accountable for the economic harm caused by its ongoing lack of transparency on COVID-19, which they estimate to have cost $18 trillion in the U.S. alone.
Convened by the conservative Heritage Foundation, the nine-member Nonpartisan Commission on China and COVID-19 is dominated by former Trump administration officials but also includes a former Clinton administration National Security Council director and ex-Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota.
Their report Monday calls for Congress to create and fund a “bipartisan U.S. National COVID-19 Commission” and a “Reparations/Compensation Task Force,” and revise the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act to allow civil claims against China in U.S. courts, paid with “a deduction on interests or debts owed to China or through deductions from foreign aid funds to China.”
Lawmakers should establish an audit of U.S.-funded biomedical and related research in China, with a “rebuttable presumption” that funding should be cut unless sponsors can show the research projects are “overwhelmingly in the public interest and entail extremely low risk of harm.” Another federal commission would oversee the review.
House Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned one of their recommendations, passing the Biosecure Act to decouple supply chains from Chinese state-backed companies, at a Hudson Institute speech Monday.
“China poses the greatest threat to global peace” and “Congress must keep our focus on countering China with every tool in our code,” the Louisiana Repubican said. “Our goal is to have a significant package of China-related legislation signed into law by the end of this year.”
The commission recommends the president demand, as a “diplomatic priority,” that China allow a “comprehensive, unfettered scientific and forensic investigation” into COVID origins, economic sanctions on officials and entities involved with the “cover-up,” and recognizing the pandemic as “similar to the dawning of the nuclear age,” with corresponding changes to law and commerce.
The report makes curious choices with its statistics, however, possibly to inflate the amount of damages for which China could be held liable.
Hellbound and Down 