China gets sued by the state of Missouri — what’s next?

This appeared in The Millennial Source

In late April, Eric Schmitt, the Republican attorney general of Missouri, introduced a lawsuit in a United States federal court against the Chinese government over alleged negligence in the early days of the coronavirus crisis.

According to the allegations, the Chinese government “lied to the world about the danger and contagious nature of COVID-19, silenced whistleblowers, and did little to stop the spread of the disease.”

In Schmitt’s view, COVID-19 has done “irreparable damage” to countries across the globe and China should be held responsible.

Specifically, Schmitt’s lawsuit is trying to not only sue the Communist Party of China, the sole governing party in the country, but also three separate government agencies, a science agency, a Chinese laboratory, the province of Hubei and the city of Wuhan where the first virus outbreak originated.

Since the lawsuit was first announced many legal scholars have suggested that a successful outcome for the case would be a long shot due to laws and practices put in place that discourage cross-border litigation.

Still, backers of the suit argue that there is precedence for allowing litigation against a foreign government…