So, you know, let me, i just have to wonder whether, mr. Attorney general, you think that a the president did what he should do in terms of his own response . I realize youre going after china, but what about, in your view, was the president s response to this virus, this n pandemic, adequate, in your view . Along the lines of my lawsuit on the Consumer Protection act and trust act, we are moving forward in that regard. We can show that china did engage in unfair and deseceptiv acts. Also under the antitrust, were looking at how they were engaged in restraining or attempting to restrain freedom of trade then by hoarding it and not providing it to mississippi. So that created a very unjust environment. I think theres a general consensus that our old country could have done a lot more so we dont see tens of millions of people unemployed. In mississippi, you have thousands. I think theres enough blame to go around and as as far as your lawsuit, i think it would be a little bit difficult for you to show that there was some sort of restrain on trade. Thank you very much. Thank you, senator. Senator holly. Excuse me, ernst. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Wait a minute, it is holly. Sorry. Apologize. Thank you, chairman. My bad. Thank you. General fitch, thanks for being here and to all the witnesses for being here. I just want to give you an opportunity to respond a little bit further to some of the questions you were just being asked. Interested to hear that now it appears, at least to some of my democrat colleagues, that the United States and china are roughly equivalent bad actors when it comes to the coronavirus. Wow. That sounds a lot like the Chinese CommunistParty Propaganda that weve had jammed down our throats for the last several months. Really incredible. Is it your view, general, that they suppressed information about the nature of this disease . Thank you, senator. And i do respectfully disagree with the senator because we do have a case. And its important that we move forward with this case and i believe under our mississippi law, we will prevail. But if we dont act, then weve been irresponsible by not acting on behalf of americans in mississippi. So thats why im bringing the suit and i believe it will certainly move forward in a monetary way. It is an important deterrent. Absolutely. And we know that china lied about the origins of this virus. We know that they lied about what they knew and when they knew it. We know they identified cases at least as early as december and did not inform the public. Didnt inform their own public. Jailed the doctors who were trying to blow the whistle. Suppressed the evidence. Lied to the World Health Organization. They later colluded with the w. H. O. To get them to sweep it under the rug. So i have to say, i think your case is very strong, and as somebody who has been targeted by the chinese regime, theyve threatened to sanction me personally, and the state of missouri, im proud of what youre doing and missouri is right there with you. Missouri has also brought suit and i just want to thank you for your leadership on this. Let me just ask a little bit about your suit. Senator blumenthal was touching on this earlier. You have brought suit under the commercial activities exception currently to the foreign sovereign immunities act. Have i got that right . Correct. And so, commercial exception, and youve made a good argument for it, i have to say. Of course traditionally, fairly narrowly. Thats true, but we believe our action fits squarely in that exception. I do, too. If congress were to take action such as the bill that i have proposed that would make it very clear that states and individuals had an action in court, an actionable case in court under the foreign sovereign immunities act, that theres no immunity for china, would you welcome that additional clarification to congress . Absolutely, senator. Any additional exceptions would provide broader avenues for states and individuals to seek justice. And theres no reason to restrict so thank you for continuing to pursue adding additional tools for us. Absolutely. And my bill also states that states should have the right to sue for the coronavirus. China will have no immunity for those suits and it gives our courts authorization to freeze chinese assets in order to make sure the states and people you represent can get judgment. Would that be helpful to you to have that sort of authority to be able to attach those assets in order to award damages . Yes, senator, that would be extremely helpful to us as we move forward collect those monetary damages. Very good. Thank you. Mr. Miller, in the time ive got remaining here, thank you for being here and ive enjoyed your testimony. Its my understanding from your testimony today and your previous work that part of the prospect of state and private suits against china will help bring china to the negotiation table. It creates a form of leverage thats useful from an International Relations perspective. Is that your position . You want to clarify that for us . Yeah, i dont want to excuse or eliminate the possibility that these civil suits might actually generate some measure of justice for victims by way of civil remedy. But they would have the additional force of suppleme supplementing International Negotiations and International Law measures. And weve seen evidence of that repeatedly. Whether were talking about suits levelled against iran and ultimate negotiations leading to sell lment there. I expect the suits proceeding saudi arabia based on the atrocities of 9 11 will also have some affect in the International Law negotiations, the diplomatic negotiations, and that will be true with respect to the east African Embassy bombings and those suits as well. I dont see why this civil law remedy cant also be a contribution to those public International Law mechanisms. Very good. Well said. I think thats very well said. I agree completely. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator booker. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Id like to focus my questions today to professor kitener to make it easier, if you dont mind. I just find it exciting that there are so much bipartisan sentiment and agreement on just frankly how we know that china has been one of the maligned forces on the planet in terms of their state sponsored espionage in our country. Theyre forcing our companies to Share Technology and secrets. Theyre a corporate espionage. I can go on and on and on. Currency manipulation. China is a bad actor that is threaten threatening, in so many ways, our economy. And now, i want to talk to you about them threatening our health. We know china is an authoritarian nation. Its a system in which information flow is deeply restricted. There is no doubt that china should have been more transparent regarding the extremely dangerous nature of this virus and the urgency for a global response. Indeed, as early as november and december of last year, there was evidence of the emergence of an atypical pneumonia linked to a wholesale market in china. In late december, members of the medical community were rep remanded in china by the state for speaking out about the truth of what was happening as they tried to put a chill on information emerging. Its clear that chinas earlier response to covid19 hasd a horrific and lethal consequence for the United States and the rest of the world, but it goes deeper than chinas Immediate Response to covid19 itself. Back in april, i led a bipartisan letter with chairman graham and many of my colleagues calling for a global ban on wildlife markets. Socalled wet markets. And the International Trade of wildlife. This is the kind of market where covid19 outbreak is believed to have originated. As you know and my other colleagues have been bringing up. Venders, shoppers and live and dead animals of all species all jammed into really close quarters and the markets are therefore ideal and terrible places for diseases to jump to humans. So professor, just a few quick questions. What legislative tools can congress use to try to push for the global ban on live wildlife markets and the International Wildlife trade and the second part of this question is earlier this year, china actually announce d that it was banning the trade and consumption of wild animals, but a number of Analysis Shows that the ban has a lot of loopholes with the exception of trading wildlife for socalled medical purposes. What tools can congress use to push china and other countries to impose strong, serious bans, on wildlife markets to really save potential pandemics in the future u . Thank you, senator, and i commend you and senator graham for your letter and for that initiative and i think the International Forum to which youve addressed that letter, the idea that we need international cooperation, and then if the United States were willing to take a step forward and make whatever agreed commitments countries signed up for, to make them enforceable, which is something that we are often hesitant to do because of you know, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. We also want to preserve our freedom of maneuver. But if we were to make those enforceable, we can shame china and congress can take a role in particular through appropriations power and insuring that sufficient funding went to the bodies administering that new regime. Thank you so much. Its problematic because you see this cycle happening. In the sars outbreak in 2003, china implemented a ban, but it was temporary, then they rolled it back. Real quick, the last question is its clear that china has been down playing and objen city kat the threat posed by covid19 in ways that had lasting and deadly impacts, but we have to acknowledge that that is not the only reason why we see death rates in our country that are so t staggeringly high. The World Health Organization declared covid19 to be a Public Health emergency of international concern, but it really took six weeks for us as a nation to declare it a national emergency. Six weeks for the Trump Administration to act. And the first case of covid19 in the United States was january 21st. Taiwans first reported case was actually on the first day. South korea was one day earlier. All three countries have had the same information regarding the genetic characteristics and lethality of the virus. Taiwan has lost seven people to covid19. South korea, 281. This country is now past 122,000 people. And so i know the committee is considering proposals to amend the foreign sovereignties, sovereign immunities act to enable lawsuits, but you wrote in your testimony something we should highlight, which was i quote, the catalog of the shortcomings in u. S. , local, state, and federal responses highlighted by the Intelligence Committee by the president s daily briefing, brings up a whole lot of complications. I want you to put it on the record why the approach outlined in these proposal ss misguided because of the potential for engaging us in protracted litigation. Literally having to be subject to discovery and errors made by the Trump Administration and other governmental entities. Sovereign immunity is based on the idea of reciprocity and we respect it in our courts and in return, we expect the same if other countries. Doesnt this dredge up a lot of complications and vulnerabilities to mistakes made by the Trump Administration . Thank you, senator, on the specific point of discovery, because i know our time is short, of course discovery is a two way street and information the much more readily available from u. S. Sources, so that would absolutely come out in court if we got to that point. With the only exception of classified information, which would be another problem for the plaintiffs as we have seen in the 9 11 litigation. Thank you very much. Thank you, senator. Thank you very much. And just in response to that, too, hindsights always 20 20. And faced with a pandemic, i think this administration did a admirable job in trying to do the absolute best they can to protect our population when the Chinese Government was not forthcoming with information on how we could protect ourselves. I think that lies with the Chinese Government. So i know that this administration faced some pretty serious criticism very early on in the pandemic for not allowing people to travel from affected countries to our country. So many things were brought up about a that period of time. Huge amount of criticism heaped on this administration, and yet, the it was the right thing to do. Again, hindsight is 20 20. Now we have those that are questioning why didnt he do this sooner . Well, maybe because of all the criticism that was being placed upon the administration for trying to do the right thing in the first place. So a study published in march out of the university of South Hampton and the united kingdom, i think weve talked a lot about that, indicated that if those chinese authorities had acted three weeks earlier than they did, the number of coronavirus cases could have been reduced by 95 . And its geographic spread would have been severely limited. So lets just think about that. We know that china vastly down played again the emergence of the coronavirus as early as the fall of 2019. And if china had acted just three weeks earlier, tens of thousands of american lives could have been saved and potentially, millions of americans could still be going to work. So the Chinese Governments lying and obstructionism hasnt just impacted our ability the respond to the virus. Its also escalated to the level of blatant theft with the goal to erode u. S. Military leadership. In april, the leader of u. S. Pacific command, admiral davidson, he testified before congress that he believe china was quote, stealing technology in just about every domain and trying to use it to their advantage, end quote. This is in addition to ongoing Cyber Operations targeting our intellectual property. China has absolutely no respect for the law. They will do anything they can to get a leg up, and whether thats stealing sensitive military secrets or letting people die to avoid taking responsibility for the spread of covid19. So what i want to see, and i believe what a majority of iowans want to see, too, is for china the pay for this deadly obstruction. To allow the Chinese Communist party to go unpunished would be a travesty and it would result in this cycle of lying to go on and so thank you, mr. Chairman, for having this hearing and attempting to tackle the issue. Im also glad that throughout congress, we are having a conversation about how we can best bring the manufacturing of critical medical supplies home. Im working on some legislation on that fund and look forward to sharing it. If this happens again, and it will. Im sure. If the communist Chinese Party continues on like they have. That were not subject to the whims of china. So id like to start my question with attorney general fitch and thank you so much, attorney general, for being with us today, and for being the first woman to serve as ag of main street main street. Thank you for being a strong roll model. So attorney general, mississippi was one of the first states to file suit against china due to their failure to inform us about covid19. So we heard a lot about retaliation lawsuits regarding covid19 and ive even heard some really insane statements coming out of that their legislature would be willing to allow chinese actors to of course then turn around and sue americans. So can you talk to me a little bit about retaliation that china might have against your state, and if so, what can congress do to help alleviate that concern . Thank you, senator. I appreciate that. Its an honor to serve as the mirs woman attorney general and represent all mississippians. Certainly, china is known for repetitive bad act as and we have to hold them accountable. Certainly theyll probably come after us who do that, but were prepared. If we continue to hold them accountable, if we go for monetary damages and civil penalties, they will stop, and it will be a sign to all the nations that we will not tolerate that on behalf of americans, mississippians, everyone across our states. I understand theres that possibility, but we have to stand strong and united. Thank you so much, attorney general. My time is expired, but china has been a darn bad actor for a very long time. And i think american s are sick and tired of taking it in the shorts from china, so its about time we stand up for ourselves and let them know we will not tolerate them any longer. I dont like chinas chances in mississippi given what ive heard from the attorney general. Senator blackburn. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for this hear iing today and our witness for being here. You know, the its so interesting to hear this conversation and i think we all know that this year, china, this was in february. After the wall street journal put an article up, it was titled china is the real sick man of asia. What did china do . They expelled three journalists. Then you have the fact that we have found out, as weve talked to activists and people on the ground there in china, they knew they had this pandemic on their hands for 51 days. They chose not to take an action. What a did they do . They were buying up and hoarding ppe. And as you heard earlier from others, they were locking people in their apartments. They were leaving them to die. They had 3,000 cases. They wouldnt let, before they said anything, they wouldnt let you travel in china, but you could get on a plane in wuhan and go anywhere else on the face of the earth and they were fine with that. So you have to ask yourself, why were they doing this . Now, theres been talk about legislation, and i am so grateful for the chairman for having the hearing on this today. And we have referenced what we did in 2016, when we made that a exception for the 3,000 families that were adversary impacted. The loss of life. 3,000 lives on 9 11. And it allowed those september 11th families to seek that compensation from saudi arabia. Now, think about this. As of this week, we have 122,000 lives that have been lost in this country and why . Because of this virus and as the chairman said, we dont know if it came from the lab. If it came from the wet market. We do know that it came from wuhan, china. So this is why my colleagues have joined me on the stop covid act that would again provide this amending of the foreign sovereign immunities act and give americans their day in court. So ag fitch, first of all, want to thank you for stepping up and doing this, and i want to ask you just a couple of things. Do you think other states are going to join you in this lawsuit and how would state attorneys generals and then the american people, their citizens, benefit from having another tool in the tool box so that they could seek that compensation from, from the Chinese Communist party . Thank you, senator blackburn. We have to hold them accountable. We have to be very strong in our actions. I think that more attorney general will be a part of it. We have sent a letter to 21 attorneys general requesting continued action, legislation to give us more tools to proceed. Its certainly about monetary compensation and civil penalties, but it truly goes back to the deterrent. China needs to know that america, were going the use every tool at our disposal and the more youre able to provide through additional exceptions and legislation, its extremely critical. Helps us hold them accountable because were not going to allow them to reek havoc on our people like theyve done with this pandemic. So i think youll see more and more ags move forward with that. This is a very Malicious Behavior on behalf of china. And so we have got to again look at every avenue that we can and make them be on notice, that they cannot do harm to us. So there are 21 attorneys general that are looking at seeking some type restitution. Is that what you just said . Thats correct, senator. We have letters requesting additional legislation to help provide ways to go after and hold china accountable. Okay, that is helpful to us and we hope by getting the stop covid act passed, that we can provide another tool in the tool box for that. Professor miller, i want to talk with you just a minute about china responsibility and i appreciate your article on chinas responsibility for the global pandemic. And you discuss how a famous 1920s International Law case has great implications for Holding China accountable today. And in that case, canada paid reparations to the u. S. After a toxins from a canadian zinc smelt destroyed parts of the pacific northwest. You wrote, im quoting, if canada had Good Environmental laws in place, the smelter wouldnt be polluting and wouldnt have done harm in the u. S. , end quote. Likewise, again quoting, if china had maintained an adequate food safety regulatory regime, the harm wouldnt have been spread, end quote. So talk for just a minute about how chinese citizens would benefit by our Holding China accountable for what they have done, not only to the u. S. , but to other nations. Yes, senator. Thank you. The arguments that im making point to and frankly, this draws on the questions of senator booker. The arguments im making is that the sale of wildlife in china has been a repeated cause of the emergence of these viral outbreaks. And potentially eventual pandemics, but to talk about that is really to talk about a regulatory failure on the part of china to maintain an adequate and effective food safety regulatory regime. This is regulatory failure, just as it was regulatory failure for canada to maintain a proper environmental and pollution abatement regime. If thats the case, then its not only american scitizens tha would benefit from some accountability with respect to a regulatory failure like that, but in the very first instance, its going to be chinese citizens that will be the beneficiaries of our efforts here. That is, theyre first in line to exposure to these outbreaks and as weve heard repeatedly, theyre at great risk from Human Rights Violations should an outbreak take place and the regime there seek to try the control it. And in this sense, the attempt to hol china accountable for its regulatory failure, its regulatory negative ekt, speaks first and foremost to the interests of chinese citizens. Thank you. I think our time is, would you like to finish up, senator blackburn . No. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you for your work on producing a product the committee will consider. Thank you, all, to the witnessesewitnesse witnesses, i appreciate what you brought. Were not going to decide the case and we can all have our opinions about whos to blame in terms of the next election cycle. My goal is to put more tools on the table to let china understand that enough is enough and what weve done in the past hasnt worked. Well hold the record open for the appropriate amount of time for questions and comments. The hearing is adjourned. Attorney general from mississippi, you were great. Thank you. Thank you. President trump welcomes the polish president to the white house today. The two leaders will hold a joint press conference from the white house rose garden at 3 30 p. M. Eastern. Watch live on cspan3. First ladies, influence and image, on American History tv, examines the private lives and public roles of the nations first ladies through interviews with top historians. Tonight, we look at Caroline Harrison and ida mckinley. In 1889, Caroline Harrison was the first sitting first lady to deliver a speech. Ida mckinley was a strong supporter of womens suffrage. Watch tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan3. Every saturday night, American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures in history. Why do you all know who Lizzie Borden is and raise your hand if you had ever heard of this murder trial before this class . The deepest cause where well find the true meaning of the revolution is where this transformation took place in the minds of the american people. So were going to talk about both side of the story, right . The tools, techniques of slave owner power and well talk about the tools and techniques of power that were practiced by enslaved people. Watch history professors lead discussions with their students on topics ranging from the American Revolution to september 11th. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. 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