In the crucial early weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chinese Communist Party systematically suppressed, misrepresented, and falsified information necessary to address and prevent what has become a global pandemic. China’s cover-up has caused tens of thousands of deaths in the United States and increased the national deficit nearly fourfold.
While I firmly believe that our determination and ingenuity will help us rebound, the pandemic has been devastating. Over 30 million people in the U.S. have lost their jobs, and families across the country are grieving the loss of their loved ones. So far, Congress has appropriated nearly $3 trillion to mitigate the social and economic costs of China’s intentional concealment of COVID-19, but we do not yet know the full cost. The emergency’s long-term effects on the U.S. cannot be overstated, and I believe that the Chinese Communist Party must pay for the deadly impacts of its actions. The country deserves the compensation owed to them under international law.
In 2002 and 2003, the Chinese Communist Party sought to conceal an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS. SARS affected 30 countries and killed 774 people, triggering an international push to codify nations’ responsibilities in preventing outbreaks of infectious diseases. These talks resulted in the 2005 International Health Regulations, which were intended to ensure that China’s SARS cover-up was never repeated. But the Chinese Communist Party has violated its obligations once again, unleashing a pandemic of far greater severity than SARS.
International law makes clear that injured nations are entitled to seek reparations for suffering caused by the concealment of public health information. Holding the Chinese Communist Party financially accountable is the best way to deter the release of another killer virus on the global community in the future, ensure that the Communist Party stops violating international law, and provide compensation.
Unfortunately, China has demonstrated that it will not abide by the policies and procedures of international institutions. The Communist Party has flagrantly violated international law and norms around trade, freedom of navigation, the environment, human rights, respecting the borders and resources of their neighbors, and deterring North Korea. We will only be successful in making the Chinese Communist Party agree to compensation through sanctions and punitive measures that do not depend on China’s own consent.
This is why I am introducing the Compensation for Americans Act, which will seek appropriate compensation for the loss of life and injury to the national economy caused by the Chinese Communist Party. Compensation is not a policy of retribution; it is a policy of security and accountability. It reinforces international norms that keep us safe and gives China a helping hand by providing an avenue for the country to restore its legitimacy in the world community.
The U.S. has previously taken extraordinary steps to pressure foreign nations that have grievously harmed U.S. interests. In 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower froze Cuban assets in the wake of Fidel Castro’s revolution. President Jimmy Carter froze $12 billion in Iranian assets during the hostage crisis in 1979. Just last year, President Trump froze Venezuelan assets to pressure Nicolas Maduro’s murderous regime in Venezuela.
To convince China that a compensation agreement is in its own interests, the Compensation for Americans Act would establish a compensation fund for those affected and allow the president to freeze Chinese assets to bring the Communist Party to the negotiating table. The legislation gives the administration a wide array of other tools, including sanctions on communist officials, high-tech companies, industries such as pharmaceutical manufacturers that have benefited from COVID-19, and people and companies that engage in censorship, surveillance, or U.S. intellectual property theft.
It imposes export controls on telecommunications equipment that the Communist Party uses to censor and suppress internet-based information sharing, requires transparency from Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, and allows U.S. companies that have been attacked by Chinese hackers to strike back.
The Compensation for Americans Act allows federal employees to invest in their retirement accounts without having to worry about propping up the Chinese regime. It directs the administration to stop procuring items from China for the National Strategic Stockpile and other programs, seeks to mitigate supply chain risks, and looks to help U.S. companies move their assets out of China. It limits new Chinese investment in the U.S., ends China’s preferential trade status, and pressures China to pay its fair share at the United Nations. These tools will help bring China to the table to fairly compensate U.S. families.
I have always stood up for Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kong residents, journalists, and minority groups in China who have been persecuted and even killed by the Communist Party. But this year, we must boldly stand up for those who are being harmed by the Communist Party’s actions. The Communist Party’s unconscionable cover-up of COVID-19 and systematic human rights violations are killing American citizens within our own borders and unleashing an economic tragedy in our communities not seen since the Great Depression. For the health and safety of those in the U.S. and our partners and allies worldwide, the nation has a solemn duty to hold the Communist Party to account. The American people deserve justice.
Rep. Ann Wagner, a Republican, represents Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House.
