WASHINGTON — The state of Missouri has filed a federal lawsuit against China based on allegations that the Chinese government suppressed information about COVID-19 before the disease spread globally.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed the action Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, contending in the complaint that the virus triggered a pandemic as a direct result of actions taken by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s regime.
There have been multiple class action suits filed against China related to the pandemic, but Missouri is the first state to bring legal action, according to Schmitt’s office.
“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 complaint states.
Missouri Democrats dismissed the suit as a political stunt and waste of taxpayer money. Legal experts gave it little chance of success.
Schmitt’s complaint cites stories from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post about China’s handling of the initial outbreak. He also includes a link to a story from Breitbart, a right-wing news site.
The suit seeks unspecified compensation “for the enormous loss of life, human suffering, and economic turmoil experienced by all Missourians from the COVID-19 pandemic that has disrupted the entire world.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to Missouri’s lawsuit.
The suit also names as defendants the Chinese Communist Party, the city of Wuhan, where the virus first spread, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab in China at the center of conspiracy theories related to the virus’s initial outbreak.
The action cites 2018 State Department cables that expressed safety concerns about the lab’s research related to coronaviruses. The lab has pushed back strongly on claims that it had any involvement with the spread of the virus.
But the case faces significant legal hurdles, experts said Tuesday.
“There are a number of long-standing principles against U.S. states conducting their own foreign policy,” said Sam Halabi, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law who specializes in global health law.
Halabi said there are legitimate concerns about how China reacted to the virus that should be investigated. But he cast doubt that the suit would advance or that China would even send representatives to the court to contest the case.
“I don’t know that a district court in the eastern part of Missouri is the right place to do that fact-finding,” he said.
One major obstacle will be sovereign immunity, the legal principle that protects foreign governments from lawsuits with some exceptions.
The attorney general’s complaint cites two exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which he argues should allow the case to proceed. They relate to commercial activity in the U.S. and “for personal injury or death, or damage to or loss of property, occurring in the United States and caused by the tortious act or omission of that foreign state.”
Patrick McInerney, a former federal prosecutor who works in private practice in Kansas City, said the argument is unlikely to find traction.
“The list of challenges to this complaint is long. It’s a tough call to say spreading this virus was commercial activity. At the end of the day, I think this is much more of a stunt than an effort to get compensation for people in Missouri who have been impacted by coronavirus,” McInerney said.
“There’s a reason that citizens and governments aren’t allowed to sue other countries. It would choke the judicial system,” McInerney said. “This is a big square peg in a place where there may not be hole at all.”
Schmitt does have a prominent Republican ally. U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, who preceded Schmitt as attorney general, has drafted legislation that would strip China of sovereign immunity to enable states and private citizens to take legal action.
“This is an important step to hold China accountable. That’s why I’ve introduced legislation to allow states and private citizens to sue the Chinese Communist Party responsible for this pandemic. More states should follow Attorney General Schmitt’s lead,” Hawley said in a statement. “The CCP took deliberate steps to coverup this virus and their actions are indefensible. They don’t deserve sovereign immunity.”
Elad Gross, a St. Louis attorney running for attorney general as a Democrat, said on Twitter without Hawley’s proposed change to the law, Schmitt’s lawsuit has little chance of succeeding.
“I wonder why our Attorney General spent taxpayer resources — probably a lot because of how complicated this case is — on suing China before working on the many issues we need to work on at home, like price gouging, scams, workplace protections, and protecting the vote,” Gross said.
State Rep. Kip Kendrick, a Democrat, said also dismissed the lawsuit as a political move.
“I think it’s pretty clear to people that Missouri won’t have standing to sue China. And as we’re in the midst of cutting hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars from the state budget, I guess my request to the attorney general would be that he doesn’t waste a lot of taxpayer dollars in this pursuit,” Kendrick said.
State Rep. Judy Morgan, a Democrat, called the suit a waste time and resources that would do little to mitigate the virus in Missouri.
“I certainly think there’s been some lack of transparency on China’s part from the beginning, but I think you could say the same thing about our country because the president initially called COVID-19 a hoax,” Morgan said.
Republican state Sen. Bob Onder said even if the case faces uphill battle legally it sends the message that Missourians want to hold China accountable.
“I would just say that just because something is popular politically doesn’t make it wrong,” Onder said. “And in this case, I think Attorney General Schmitt is on target.”
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