KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s top prosecutor says China is suing after the state pressured federal officials to help collect about $25 billion in court judgments related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
China is demanding a public apology from the government in a lawsuit filed with the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said in a press release on Tuesday. The Chinese government also seeks damages equivalent to US$50.5 billion, plus legal fees and the right to further damages.
“This lawsuit is a delaying tactic and tells me that we have always been on the right side of this issue,” Hanaway said in the release.
At issue is a lawsuit filed by Missouri alleging that China harmed the state and its residents by hoarding personal protective equipment in the early months of the pandemic. Earlier this year, a federal judge ruled in favor of Missouri after China refused to participate in the trial. The company called the lawsuit, filed in 2020, “absolutely ridiculous.”
Last month, Missouri stepped up its recovery efforts, requiring the U.S. State Department to formally notify China that the state intends to pursue assets owned in whole or in part by the Chinese government to satisfy the judgment.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in an emailed statement on Wednesday that he was not familiar with the specifics of the new case. But he said the earlier Missouri lawsuit was “purely a politically motivated ploy.”
Peng Yu said that China firmly opposes and will never accept this, and reserves the right to take strong countermeasures.
China’s Foreign Ministry said earlier this year that its actions during the epidemic were outside U.S. jurisdiction and did not recognize the ruling.
Some legal experts have expressed doubts that Missouri can collect fees based on the judgment because federal law generally protects foreign countries from lawsuits in U.S. courts.
The case took an unusual path. U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh initially dismissed the lawsuit in 2022, saying Missouri could not sue China, the Chinese Communist Party and seven other government or scientific institutions. But the appeals court allowed one part of the lawsuit to proceed: accusations that China was hoarding personal protective equipment such as masks, gowns and gloves.
After Chinese officials failed to respond, Limbaugh accepted Missouri’s estimate of past and potential future losses of more than $8 billion, tripling it as allowed by federal law and adding 3.91 percent interest until recouped.
The lawsuit was originally filed by state Attorney General Eric Schmidt, an ally of President Donald Trump who later won election to the U.S. Senate, and claimed that Chinese officials were responsible for the coronavirus outbreak. The job was carried out by another Trump ally, Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who resigned in September to become joint deputy director of the FBI.
Hanaway, a former U.S. attorney and Missouri House speaker, inherited the case after being appointed state attorney general by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe.
The Associated Press was not immediately able to obtain a copy of the complaint filed by China. But one copy was associated with Hanaway’s press release.
The indictment accuses Missouri and Schmidt and Bailey of “fabricating a large amount of false information and spreading stigmatization and discriminatory slander” to damage China’s reputation.
Schmidt said he would wear the suit “like a badge of honor” and accused Chinese authorities of “trying to excuse all of their misdeeds early in the pandemic.”