Missouri orders Chinese government to pay $24B damages over PPEs
What's the story
The Chinese government has been ordered to pay $24 billion in damages by a US judge.
The ruling was issued after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey alleged that China hoarded personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This landmark decision comes after a lawsuit was filed against several Chinese entities, including the Chinese Communist Party and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in 2020.
Hoarding claims
Allegations of PPE hoarding and its impact
The lawsuit claimed China aggravated the COVID-19 pandemic by hindering the manufacture, procurement, import, and export of PPE.
It alleged that China had nationalized American factories producing PPE and had hoarded protective equipment available for sale in the US.
Missouri District Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. said, "China's campaign to hoard the global supply of PPE was performed in conjunction with its repeated misrepresentations on the existence, and then scope and human-to-human transmissibility of, the COVID-19 virus."
Legal violations
Violation of anti-monopoly laws and its consequences
Judge Limbaugh concurred with Bailey that China breached state and federal anti-monopoly laws and that Missouri "suffered significant harm in the form of lost net general tax revenue" and "heightened PPE expenditures."
He emphasized that in the early months of the pandemic, Missouri spent millions more on PPE due to China's hoarding.
The state claimed it spent an additional $122 million on PPE than it otherwise would have due to the hoarding, losing more than $8 billion in tax revenue.
Asset seizure
Plans to seize Chinese-owned assets for damages
"China refused to show up to court, but that doesn't mean they get away with causing untold suffering and economic devastation," Bailey said.
He said Missouri would collect every penny by seizing Chinese-owned assets, including farmland.
The attorney general also said they would work with the Trump administration, if necessary, "to identify and seize Chinese-owned assets" to collect on the $24 billion judgment.