Firms mull suing US govts
Anti-China politics affects Chinese companies overseas
As more foreign officials, most notably in the US, sue the Chinese government over the coronavirus pandemic, many in China, while dismissing the lawsuits as absurd, are also mulling potential countermeasures in case these lawsuits bring damage to Chinese businesses.
International legal and trade experts have argued that if Chinese companies’ legitimate interests and rights are damaged by these lawsuits or other politically-motivated moves by foreign governments, there are also abundant legal means both Chinese government and businesses can take to protect themselves.
“If they insist on [carrying forward the lawsuits] and cause damage on China, then sorry, we will also have to strike back and respond in kind by suing them,” He Weiwen, a former senior trade official and an executive council member of the China Society for World Trade Organization (WHO) Studies, told the Global Times on Thursday, calling the lawsuits by some foreign officials “absurd” and will not be accepted by China and Chinese people.
So far two US states – Missouri and Mississippi – have filed a lawsuit in the US, accusing the Chinese government of not doing enough to stop the coronavirus epidemic. There have also been media reports of lawsuits filed in India and Italy, seeking compensation from the Chinese government over the pandemic.
While few in China believe the lawsuits will bear any meaningful result, there are concerns that Chinese companies that are operating overseas could be impacted – not necessarily by the lawsuits but the overall anti-China politics.
To protect their legitimate interests, some experts said that Chinese business groups can also sue foreign governments, including the US government, for their inability to contain the virus that caused losses at Chinese companies.
Chinese companies, whose orders have been reduced due to the ineffectiveness of the US government in fighting the pandemic, can also collect evidence and sue the US federal government or relevant state governments for compensation, Zhu Ying, a professor of international law at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Wednesday. Zhu said that lawsuits can be filed in the US or at appropriate Chinese courts.
As the coronavirus continues to ravage abroad, many Chinese factories are seeing widespread declines in export orders, delays, or cancellations of existing orders. Some are even facing risks of going bankrupt due to declining orders. In the first quarter, China’s total export dropped by 11.4 percent year-on-year.
In fact, as the domestic epidemic has been effectively contained and economic activities have gradually resumed, top Chinese officials have deemed the deteriorating external environment as one of the biggest risks for the Chinese economy.
For Chinese companies, the worry is not just the pandemic itself but also an increasingly hostile environment for Chinese products, as some foreign officials and media outlets even sought to smear life-saving Chinese medical supplies.