The civil lawsuit brought by Missouri against China comes at a time when there is increased finger-pointing by the US at Beijing over the pandemic.
President Donald Trump had initially praised China for how it handled the virus, but after coming under pressure over the outbreak in the US, he raised the spectre that China might be responsible.
With US elections later this year, observers suggest the Missouri lawsuit – along with other suits brought by US companies – might serve a political end for Trump’s Republican Party.
“We are seeing a lot of people on the political right focus on the China issue to cover up for the US government’s own errors,” Tom Ginsburg, a professor of international law at the University of Chicago told Reuters.
China itself will have little to fear from such lawsuits. Foreign governments are protected from being sued in US courts and if the US did want to bring claims against China, it would have to do so on an international platform where Beijing would have the right to respond.Article share tools
