Beijing has retaliated against a U.S. court ruling on COVID-19 by suing the senator in a Chinese court.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) has introduced legislation to protect Americans from what he calls China’s “lawfare” campaign, following a $50 billion lawsuit recently filed against him in a Chinese court.
Schmitt introduced the End Chinese Lawfare Act (S.3574), which would prevent politically motivated judgments by Chinese courts from being enforced in the United States.
“Communist China’s lawsuit against me is politically motivated, legally meritless, and makes clear that China is willing to weaponize their kangaroo courts to go after American citizens,” Schmitt said in a statement on Dec. 23 to accompany the introduction of his bill.
“My bill makes clear that no politically motivated judgement issued by a Chinese court will ever be recognized or enforced in the United States. Chinese lawfare has no place in America,” he said.
In April 2020, Schmitt, who was then-Missouri attorney general, filed a COVID-19 lawsuit against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Chinese city of Wuhan, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and several other Chinese entities, over their handling of coronavirus during the initial outbreak.
Schmitt reaffirmed his stance on filing the 2020 lawsuit, saying that he “sued China and won because the facts were on my side: China lied about COVID, tried to cover it up, failed, and plunged the world into a painful global pandemic.”
In March, a Missouri judge issued a ruling on the lawsuit and found the CCP liable for $24 billion for hoarding personal protective equipment. In November, Missouri Attorney General Hanaway announced that her office had completed the legal procedure to enforce the judgment and would soon be able to start seizing Chinese-owned assets.
Earlier this month, the Chinese regime retaliated by filing a lawsuit in a Chinese court against the state of Missouri, Schmitt, and former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. The lawsuit seeks about $50 billion in joint compensation for what Beijing described as “huge economic losses” resulting from Missouri’s 2020 COVID-19 lawsuit.
Schmitt’s legislation says China’s judicial system is “constitutionally subordinate” to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which uses Chinese courts as “instruments of state policy,” including by retaliating against foreign officials, governments, businesses, and individuals.
“Politically-motivated foreign judgments pose a direct threat to democratic governance and judicial integrity whenever foreign courts are used to punish speech or official action protected under United States law,” the bill states.
If enacted, a Chinese court judgement won’t be allowed to be enforced in the United States if it is determined to have been “initiated, controlled, or materially supported” by the CCP and was motivated to retaliate against protected political speech, U.S. government authority, or U.S. constitutional rights.
Any effort to enforce the Chinese rulings in a state court could be transferred to a federal court, according to the bill.
By Frank Fang
