Americans could sue China over coronavirus damages under new bill introduced by US lawmakers
With the COVID-19 pandemic showing little signs of slowing down in the US where more than 700,000 people have been hit, the relationship between the US and China continues to fray.
While the Donald Trump administration has always been vocal against the Asian power after global pandemic was reported to have originated there, and it is now being even more hostile as it suspects that the virus originated from a lab in Wuhan and not a wet market, as it was believed so far. China has also come under fire for covering up information about the virus in the early stages.
Trump administration also feels that the World Health Organization (WHO) has been biased towards Beijing and froze funds for the world health agency.
China has drawn flak from both the major American parties and now a series of legislations have been introduced that would empower the people of the US to sue China over their suspicious actions related to the pandemic.
On Friday, April 17, legislation was introduced in the Congress that said those Americans who were fooled by China’s misinformation over the crisis could sue the government of China in American courts.
New Jersey Republican Representative Chris Smith, who announced the bill along with his Texas counterpart Ron Wright, said the bill strips not only China but all those nations that mislead the WHO of sovereign immunity and empowers the people of the US to drag Beijing to the court.
“Knowing full well that they had a deadly, and highly contagious disease on their hands, as late as mid-January China’s communist leaders told the WHO that there was no need for any precautions, as everything was under control. Fact is, it wasn’t,” Smith said in a statement.
“Time and time again, we have seen actors such as Communist China use the World Health Organization (WHO) as a mouthpiece to spread lies and misinformation to the international community, and they need to be held accountable,” he added. The NJ leader has long been a vocal critic of China and has spoken over its dubious human rights records.
The bill is similar to the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which gave families of those killed in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks the ability to sue Saudi Arabia for what they believed to be Riyadh’s role in backing those dreadful attacks.
Senator Tom Cotton, Rep. Dan Crenshaw introduced a similar legislation
The Smith-Right initiative came just a day after Texas GOP Senator Tom Cotton and Texas’ fresh GOP congressman Dan Renshaw came up with a similar legislation. It would allow the people of America to drag China to the federal court over the death and economic devastation caused by the virus.
“By silencing doctors and journalists who tried to warn the world about the coronavirus, the Chinese Communist Party allowed the virus to spread quickly around the globe,” Cotton, who has been stressing repeatedly that the virus originated from the lab, said in a statement.
“Their decision to cover up the virus led to thousands of needless deaths and untold economic harm. It’s only appropriate that we hold the Chinese government accountable for the damage it has caused,” he said.
Crenshaw said Americans “need to hold the Chinese government accountable for their malicious lies and cover-up that allowed the coronavirus to spread across the world.”