Republicans back legislation to sanction China if it refuses cooperation in COVID-19 investigations

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham has introduced legislation to allow the U.S. to impose sanctions on China if the country fails to divulge information about the COVID-19 pandemic and meet certain other demands.

The COVID-19 Accountability Act, cosponsored by several other Republican senators, would authorize President Trump to slap a variety of sanctions on the China if it refuses to cooperate in investigations about the coronavirus, shut down wet markets that could spread diseases to humans and free "all Hong Kong pro-democracy advocates that were arrested in the post COVID-19 crackdowns," according to a release from Graham's office.

Graham, (R–S.C.) lambasted China for its lack of transparency and said that he does not believe China will assist in an investigation without being forced into it. 

“I’m convinced that without Chinese Communist Party deception the virus would not be here in the United States,” he said.

Graham is also concerned about China purportedly refusing to allow the international community to visit a bio lab in Wuhan, China, where the virus started.

"We must determine how the virus came about and take steps, like closing the wet markets, to ensure it never happens again," the senator said. "More than eighty thousand Americans are dead and millions more are jobless today because of China’s failure to contain and prevent the spread of the virus.”

Cosponsors include GOP Sens. Thom Tillis, North Carolina;  Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mississippi; Mike Braun, Indiana; Rick Scott, Florida, Steve Daines, Montana; Todd Young, Indiana; Jim Inhofe, Oklahoma, and Roger Wicker, Mississippi.