Coronavirus Litigation: Beijing Calls It Attempt To 'Extort Fruits of Hard Work' Of Chinese People

In April, the State of Missouri filed a suit in the U.S. District Court against the People’s Republic of China, several Chinese government entities, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Communist Party, according to a Heritage Foundation article written on April 23.

The lawsuit is seeking damages claiming China violated Missouri law and harmed the state’s residents because China misled the World Health Organization (WHO) and delayed or even censored some information about the coronavirus. The litigation also includes language about the “devastating” economic losses to the “Show Me” state.

On Sunday, the Chinese government’s top diplomat and foreign minister Wang Yi responded at a press conference, “Regretfully, in addition to the raging coronavirus, a political virus is also spreading in the United States. This political virus is using every opportunity to attack and smear China. Some politicians have ignored the most basic facts and concocted too many lies about China and plotted too many conspiracies. I want to say here: Don’t waste precious time any longer, and don’t ignore lives.”

Wang continued saying such lawsuits lacked any legal basis. “The China of today is not the China of a century ago, and nor is the world. If you want to infringe upon China’s sovereignty and dignity with indiscriminate litigation and extort the fruits of the hard work of the Chinese people, I am afraid this is a daydream and you’ll only humiliate yourself.”

The legal action adds to the list of issues between China and the U.S. that includes the pre-pandemic trade war, China’s alleged human rights violations as well as the continuing situation in Hong Kong.

Robert O’Brien, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, appeared on two political talk shows over the weekend. He told Face the Nation (CBS) that Beijing knew of the looming crisis as early as November but chose to keep it quiet. He said, “We don’t know who in the Chinese government did it, but it doesn’t matter if it was the local Chinese government or the Communist Party of China.”

He added, “Look, this was a virus that was unleashed by China. There was a cover-up that someday they’re going to do an HBO show like they did with Chernobyl.” The Chernobyl reference was to a 1986 nuclear disaster in the Ukraine that was initially covered up by the then-USSR and probably accelerated the break-up of the Soviet states.

On another show, NBC’s Meet the Press, O’Brien repeated his words accusing China of a “cover-up that … is going to go down in history along with Chernobyl."

The November 2020 presidential election figures to play a big role in how the Trump administration will handle the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. The President's latest tactic is to place more emphasis on the accountability of China at the early stages of the outbreak and less emphasis on the nearly 100,000 American deaths and unemployment numbers. If Trump is defeated his successor is certain to change some or all of Trump’s policies toward China and its Communist leaders.

Elections are not a concern for China’s President Xi Jinping. He was “elected” almost unanimously in 2013 by the 12th National People's Congress in Beijing for a five-year term. The term limits were removed in 2018, making Xi president for life unless he chooses to step down.