A federal court has ordered the Chinese Government to pay $24billion to Missouri over the country’s ‘hoarding’ of life-saving medical equipment during the Covid pandemic — that cost more than 1.19million American lives.
The state sued the Chinese Government in 2020, arguing China had undertaken an ‘aggressive campaign to hoard and monopolize’ personal protective equipment (PPE) in the early days of the pandemic.
It presented evidence China had ‘nationalized’ US factories producing PPE in China and imported face masks from the US in autumn 2019, before the alarm was raised over the virus.
The lawsuit claims this left Missourians vulnerable to the virus, and led the state to have to pay much more to obtain PPE for its own healthcare services than it otherwise would have.
China did not send representatives to court or respond to summons, allowing Missouri to win a default judgement from federal judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr.
State attorney general Andrew Bailey, a Republican, called the judgement from March a ‘landmark victory’ for both Missouri and the US.
He has threatened to seize Chinese-owned assets in the country, including farmland, to recoup the amount owed.
China did not immediately respond, but in a statement its embassy said it would not recognize the judgement and would ‘firmly take reciprocal countermeasures according to international law’.
Pictured above is a man wearing a face mask. China has been ordered to pay $24billion to Missouri for hoarding PPE
Chinese President Xi Jinping is best by a wave of economic, foreign policy and domestic political challenges just months after clearing his way to rule as long as he wants (file photo)
More than 1.19million Americans died during the Covid pandemic, data shows — after the virus emerged in China and spread around the world.
In Missouri, the toll is 24,024 Covid-linked fatalities.
At the start of the Covid pandemic, many governments were left empty-handed in their race to secure Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) — like face masks, gowns and gloves.
Missouri spent $18million in March 2020 alone to purchase more than four million face masks — believed to have come from China.
But evidence presented in the case suggests that China was stockpiling PPE months earlier, even as it did not admit to the rest of the world that there was an outbreak and then said that there was no evidence that the virus could spread from person-to-person.
China was the world’s largest exporter of PPE before the Covid pandemic began, and the lawsuit says had US-owned factories that were producing the equipment.
In response to the judgement, Bailey said: ‘This is a landmark victory for Missouri and the United States in the fight to hold China accountable for unleashing COVID-19 on the world.
‘China refused to show up to court, but that doesn’t mean they get away with causing untold suffering and economic devastation.
‘We intend to collect every penny by seizing Chinese-owned assets, including Missouri farmland.’
The above shows provisional Covid deaths per week in Missouri according to the CDC
And this shows the proportion of deaths in the state linked to Covid during the pandemic
In the case, Missouri said that China’s stockpiling led the state to spend an extra $122million to secure PPE supplies. It also said it had suffered $8.4billion in lost revenues due to the Covid pandemic.
The court trebled this figure to calculated damages, which were then put to China in a default judgement.
The lawsuit did not claim any specific origin of the virus, although several agencies have concluded it likely came from a lab leak in China.
Instead, it focused on accusations that China’s leadership was aware of Covid and human-to-human transmission months before other nations.
Prosecutors submitted evidence to prove this including a purported statement from a Chinese professor at Wuhan University who said he knew someone infected with Covid as early as September 2019.
And reports from the US State Department saying it had ‘reason to believe’ several researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick with Covid-like symptoms in Autumn 2019.
It also cited trade data that showed how, in January and February 2020, China had imported 16 times as many medical masks as usual from the US alone.
Judge Limbaugh wrote: ‘According to frontline doctors, by November 2019 the rate of illness in Wuhan was so high that government officials were canceling classes in some high schools.
‘In other words, by November 2019 (and certainly December 2019), local Chinese officials recognized the dangers of human-to-human transmission of the Covid virus to a sufficient degree that they were taking affirmative steps to limit gatherings of people.’
The ruling said the evidence submitted by Missouri’s attorney general was deemed ‘satisfactory to prove its point’ since China did not appear or defend itself in court.
Concerns over the Covid outbreak in China began to surface in late December 2019, but it took until January 14, 2020, for the World Health Organization’s technical lead to admit that it was possible that Covid was spreading between people.
The case was filed with four claims against China: Public nuisance, abnormally dangerous activity, breach of duty by allowing transmission of Covid and breach of duty by hoarding PPE.
A district court initially held that the claims were barred, but the Eighth circuit then reversed this on the hoarding claim.
The lawsuit named nine organizations in China, including the Government, the Chinese Communist Party, the nation’s National Health Commission and the People’s Government of Hubei Province, where Wuhan was located.
It is unclear what may happen next, but China could set the judgement aside for improper service. It is also possible that Missouri will start seizing Chinese assets or that similar lawsuits follow in other states.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .