The Political Push to Sue China for Covid-19

Holding the country accountable in U.S. courts will be tough, but plenty of people are trying

- Sheridan Prasso, with Patricia Hurtado and Edvard Pettersson

President Trump has joined a chorus of calls for China to cough up damages from the Covid-19 pandemic, saying his administration is exploring ways to make the country pay. (“We haven’t determined the final amount yet. It’s very substantial,” Trump said at a press briefing on April 27.) His remarks followed several bills proposed by Republican members of Congress seeking to strip China of its sovereign immunity protection in U.S. courts. That would potentially leave China open to lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in compensation for its handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Those lawsuits are multiplying. Two proposed class-action suits have been filed in federal court in Miami, and similar ones have been filed in California, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The state of Missouri has filed a federal suit seeking damages, while Mississippi has also said it will file a case. Next maybe Florida: The state’s chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, wrote of that intention to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, saying that in the meantime, he’ll seek to seize any payments Florida owes to Chinese vendors as well as any unclaimed property of Chinese-owned companies “to offset the debt” that the Chinese Communist Party owes the people of Florida.

For sure, there’s a large element of political theater in riling up sentiment against China— especially before the U.S. presidential election in November, as Republicans seek to shift blame from Trump for a U.S. death toll above 70,000, 10,000 more deaths than he’d previously suggested might be the maximum. A strategy memo for Republican campaigners obtained by