A judge previously ruled that China was liable for damages stemming from the hoarding of protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said on Tuesday he would collect “every penny” of the $24.5 billion awarded in a lawsuit against China, including by seizing Chinese-owned assets in the United States.
His remarks follow a March 7 ruling by U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh, who found China’s communist leadership liable for damages stemming from suppressing information about the COVID-19 virus and hoarding personal protective equipment (PPE) manufactured in or available for sale to the United States.
Limbaugh rendered the decision by default after officials from the Chinese communist regime did not appear to plead their side of the case, a common outcome in cases dealing with foreign entities.
Bailey said the ruling was “a landmark victory” in the effort to hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and several of its government agencies and institutions accountable for exacerbating the pandemic with their actions.
“China refused to show up to court, but that doesn’t mean they get away with causing untold suffering and economic devastation,” the state attorney general said in a statement.
Bailey vowed to enforce the $24.5 billion judgment and that if needed, Missouri will work with the Trump administration to identify and seize Chinese-owned assets.
“We intend to collect every penny by seizing Chinese-owned assets, including Missouri farmland,” he stated.
Bailey said in a separate statement to news outlets that the assets subject to seizure could be located anywhere in the United States, not just in Missouri.
The lawsuit, filed by the state of Missouri in 2020, accused the CCP of nationalizing American factories in China producing PPE and limiting their exports, which contributed to supply shortages in the United States.
In his ruling, Limbaugh stated that “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.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over its actions during the pandemic, and that “China has the right to take reciprocal countermeasures in accordance with international law to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.” The ministry did not specify what countermeasures it plans to pursue.
