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missouriTop prosecutor said China The lawsuit is being filed after the state pressured federal officials for help over a nearly $25 billion court judgment related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Attorney General Kathryn Hanaway said in a news release Tuesday that China is demanding a public apology from the state in a complaint filed in the Intermediate People’s Court. WuhanThe Chinese government is also seeking compensation equal to $50,5 billion plus legal fees and the right to claim further compensation,
“This is a strategy to stop the lawsuit and tells me that we have always been on the right side of this issue,” Hanway said in the news release.
At issue is a lawsuit filed by Missouri alleging that China hoarded personal protective equipment during the early months of the pandemic, causing harm to the state and its residents. A federal judge ruled for Missouri earlier this year after China declined to participate in the lawsuit. When the lawsuit was filed in 2020, it was called “pretty absurd.”
Last month, Missouri stepped up its collection efforts, asking 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 Missouri’s previous lawsuit was a “purely politically motivated maneuver.”
“China firmly opposes this, will never accept it and reserves the right to take strong retaliatory measures,” Pengyu said.
China’s Foreign Ministry said earlier this year that its actions during the pandemic are not subject to US jurisdiction and that it does not recognize the decision.
Some legal experts have cast doubt on whether Missouri can enforce the decision, because federal law generally protects foreign countries from lawsuits in U.S. courts.
The case has taken an unusual path. US District Judge Stephen Limbaugh initially dismissed the lawsuit in 2022, saying Missouri could not sue China, its Communist Party and seven other government or scientific agencies. But an appeals court allowed one part of the lawsuit to proceed: the allegation that China hoarded personal protective equipment such as respiratory masks, medical gowns and gloves.
After Chinese officials did not respond, Limbaugh accepted Missouri’s estimate of past and potential future losses of more than $8 billion, tripled it as allowed by federal law, and added 3.91% interest until it was collected.
The lawsuit was originally filed by State Attorney General Eric Schmidt, an aide to the president donald trump Who later won the US Senate election and alleged that Chinese officials were to blame for the epidemic. It was put forward by the Attorney General Andrew BaileyAnother Trump aide who resigned in September to become co-deputy director of the FBI.
Hanvey, a former U.S. attorney and Missouri House speaker, inherited the case when he was appointed state attorney general by Republican Governor Mike Kehoe.
The Associated Press was not immediately able to obtain its copy of the complaint filed by China. But a copy was attached to Hanaway’s news release.
The complaint accuses Missouri, as well as Schmidt and Bailey, of “fabricating gross misinformation, and spreading stigmatizing and discriminatory defamations” that harmed China’s reputation.
Schmidt said he would wear the suit “like a badge of honor” and accused Chinese officials of “trying to absolve themselves of all wrongdoing in the early days of the pandemic.”