The state of Missouri filed a lawsuit against China and the Chinese Communist Party seeking repayment for damage caused by the coronavirus.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt confirmed the lawsuit to Fox News on Tuesday, citing “the enormous loss of life, human suffering, and economic turmoil” as the basis for the lawsuit. Since the outbreak began, Missouri has had 215 deaths and an economic loss totaling $44 billion.
“In Missouri, the impact of the virus is very real — thousands have been infected, and many have died. Families have been separated from dying loved ones, small businesses are shuttering their doors, and those living paycheck to paycheck are struggling to put food on their table,” Schmitt said.
The lawsuit alleges that China is responsible for “repeated unlawful and unreasonable acts and omissions” that have interfered with “the lives, health, and safety of substantial numbers of Missouri residents, ruining lives and damaging the public order and economy of the State of Missouri.”
In the lawsuit, Schmitt outlined accusations that China covered up the outbreak when it began in Wuhan last year and continued to push false or misleading data and research about the virus in a way that fueled the pandemic.
“An appalling campaign of deceit, concealment, misfeasance, and inaction by Chinese authorities unleashed this pandemic. During the critical weeks of the initial outbreak, Chinese authorities deceived the public, suppressed crucial information, arrested whistleblowers, denied human-to-human transmission in the face of mounting evidence, destroyed critical medical research, permitted millions of people to be exposed to the virus, and even hoarded personal protective equipment—thus causing a global pandemic that was unnecessary and preventable,” the suit states.
Schmitt also highlighted recent reporting that revealed U.S. intelligence officials believe the coronavirus may have been accidentally carried out of a government laboratory in Wuhan and not transmitted after someone contracted the virus from a wet market, as Chinese officials first claimed.
Currently, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act forbids Americans from suing foreign governments. By listing the Chinese Communist Party in addition to the Republic of China, Schmitt hopes to sidestep the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act by suing the party that has full control over the country in addition to suing the government itself.
The state hopes that the lawsuit will force China to “cease engaging in the abnormally dangerous activities, reimburse the cost of the State’s abatement efforts, and pay compensatory and other damages.”
Several other groups have filed class action lawsuits against China over the coronavirus. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas have also introduced a bill that would allow Americans to sue the nation over the coronavirus.
