China is vowing to take “resolute and effective measures” unless a district court halts Missouri’s lawsuit over COVID-related damages, denouncing the proceedings as a “farce.”
Newsweek reached out to the Missouri attorney general’s office with a written request for comment.
Why It Matters
As COVID-19 spread throughout the world in April 2020, Missouri, along with Mississippi, filed lawsuits against the Chinese government over its initial handling of the pandemic. Missouri’s attorney general has vowed to seize Chinese assets in the Show Me State in the event Beijing loses the suit and refuses to pay $25 billion in damages.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently called on Chinese authorities, who in the crucial early weeks of the pandemic suppressed news of the spreading crisis, to disclose more information, with one health expert calling China’s limited disclosures “simply inexcusable.” Beijing maintains it has been fully transparent.
What to Know
Missouri’s five-year lawsuit hinges on one key question: Did China’s hoarding of masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) drive up costs and endanger residents?
China, which before the pandemic supplied half the world’s surgical masks, restricted exports as global demand surged.
The trial took place at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri’s federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau on Monday. The court is expected to rule in the “coming weeks,” according to a statement from the attorney general.
“Today, we hauled China into court to hold them accountable for unleashing COVID-19 on the world,” Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in the statement.
“Such a lawsuit is nothing short of frivolous litigation that defies the basic theory of the law and sovereign equality,” Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told Newsweek when asked how China would react to a ruling in the state’s favor.
“U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over the sovereign actions taken by Chinese governments of all levels in response to the epidemic,” he added. “We urge the relevant side to immediately stop this farce. Otherwise, we would surely take resolute and effective measures to safeguard our legitimate interests.”
What People Are Saying:
Bailey said: “Today, we hauled China into court to hold them accountable for unleashing COVID-19 on the world. Missouri is the only state in the nation to file suit to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for causing and exacerbating COVID-19.”
Josh Divine, Missouri solicitor general, told K8 News: “Remember that these [Missouri] doctors were being told, ‘You can’t just throw away your mask anymore because there’s a shortage. You need to wear your mask and try to sanitize it if you can, and then you’re going to wear your mask in front of 20 different patients.’
“That’s what we’re talking about here […] and that is what led to a substantial spread of COVID that would not have happened but for China’s decision to hoard these materials.”
Sean King, an Asia scholar and vice president of New York-based consultancy Park Strategies, told Newsweek: “If COVID-19 had ever originated in St. Louis, or elsewhere in the truly great state of Missouri, and had in turn killed millions of innocents all around the world, we can be sure there’d be holy hell to pay by us Americans. And Beijing would surely be screaming loudest of all. This court case is at the very least the beginning of a longer discussion— and reckoning—worth having.”
Non-profit multimedia publication Lawfare wrote in June: “Continued tension over these suits could lead the Chinese government to retaliate against the United States, potentially even by stripping the United States’s immunity in Chinese courts.”
What’s Next
A ruling is expected in the coming weeks. China refused to take part in the proceedings, and the judge said he is inclined to issue a ruling favorable to the state, per a press statement from the attorney general’s office.
The post Exclusive: China Warns US State Over COVID-19 Lawsuit: ‘Farce’ appeared first on Newsweek.
