‘Not a solution’
A California senator described China as a “respectable nation” and said that “it is a huge mistake” to allow US citizens to sue China over coronavirus damage as she defended the nation in a firm speech against a bill authorizing such a move.
“Where I live, we hold China as a potential trading partner, as a country that has pulled tens of millions of people out of poverty in a short period of time, and as a country growing into a respectable nation amongst other nations,” Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein told her fellow lawmakers during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday.
“I deeply believe that. I’ve been to China a number of times. I’ve studied the issues … the United States has the most to lose by permitting civil lawsuits against China for harms arising from COVID-19,” she added, referring to testimony from recent committee hearings.
Feinstein’s comment came as the judiciary panel convened to discuss the Civil Justice for Victims of COVID Act, a bill introduced by Republican Senator Martha McSally, which would allow US citizens to sue the Chinese government in federal court for damages stemming from the pandemic.
The proposed legislation, supported by some Republican politicians, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, passed with a 13-9 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. It is on its way to the Senate for consideration.
Graham, also a co-sponsor of the bill, alleged that “the Chinese Communist Party deceived the world and manipulated information about coronavirus”.
He suggested amending the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which establishes limitation as to whether a foreign sovereign nation may be sued in US courts, to allow exceptions for lawsuits against China.
Feinstein cautioned that stripping China of its sovereign immunity could lead to retaliatory measures against the US from other countries.
“We launched a series of unknown events that could be very, very dangerous. I think this is a huge mistake.”
Chimene Keitner, a professor of international law at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, a witness at the hearing, argued that private litigation will not bring China to the negotiating table, nor will it produce answers or compensation for US victims.
“If these claims were actually litigated, it would provide attorneys for China with a captive audience to catalog the shortcomings in US local, state and federal responses to a threat that was reportedly highlighted by the intelligence community in the President’s daily brief as early as mid-January,” she said.
It is more important now to focus on the immediate needs of the US citizen, Keitner said, adding: “Domestically, this means prioritizing an ‘all of government’ response guided by science and divorced, as much as possible, from electoral politics.”
As a sovereign state, China is immune from the jurisdiction of any foreign court. Moreover, under most international legal systems, China would need to consent to having litigation filed against it before it could be sued, so it is highly unlikely for such a lawsuit to prevail in court, experts said.
“We don’t have an international court system where a state is compelled to appear before the court unless they’ve consented,” Natalie Klein, a law professor at the University of New South Wales, said in an interview with The New Daily.
J. Maria Glover, a law professor at Georgetown University, told the Los Angeles Times that the lawsuits appear to be symbolic and political. “They are looking for someone to blame, and there’s plenty of blame to go around, but these suits have almost court.”
In an emailed statement on Friday, Judy Chu, a Democrat from California, said the Republicans are trying to draw attention away from the current administration’s failed response to the coronavirus pandemic by placing the blame on China. zero chance of success in
“Xenophobia is not a solution to the coronavirus. Instead of accepting responsibility for this crisis, Republicans are trying to redirect all blame toward China. This has not produced a cure, reopened the economy, or provided more PPE (personal protective equipment). What it has done is contribute to a spike in anger toward China and those perceived to be ethnically Chinese that has led to over 2,300 anti-Asian hate incidents in just the past few months.”
“It is dangerous and it is why last week I sent messaging guidance to every member of Congress urging them to avoid Cold War style rhetoric like this bill which only stokes more anger and puts lives at risk.”
A number of scientists have recognized that China’s tough measures to contain the outbreak and its fast communication with international organizations helped to buy valuable response time for other countries’ battle against coronavirus.
A study published in Nature in May by scientists in China, the US, and the UK, concluded that nonpharmaceutical intervention methods used to contain the outbreak in China, such as intercity travel restrictions, early detection and isolation of cases, as well as social distancing measures, substantially reduced the transmission of the disease in China and mitigated the effect of the pathogen in other parts of the world.
“China’s aggressive, multifaceted response is likely to have prevented a far worse situation, which would have accelerated the spread of the virus globally,” the researchers said.
After detection of cases of pneumonia of unknown causes in late December last year, Chinese authorities has been regularly informing the World Health Organization, starting from Jan 3.