Blaming Beijing for COVID-19
Sanctions; Sovereign Immunity; Financial Claims
As the COVID-19 virus ravages the world, Washington’s preoccupation with China is increasingly being viewed through a pandemic tainted lens.
A number of bills are now pending before Congress which effectively blame China for the outbreak and seek to punish the People’s Republic for its handling of the disease. They provide a revealing look at the current state of play in US-Sino relations and are part of a larger group of legislative actions that is currently percolating through Capitol Hill with an explicit China focus. The antipathy of Congress is matched by the hostile tone emerging from the White House, also blames China in order to deflect from its failures.
The bills seek to sanction Chinese officials, waive Beijing’s sovereign immunity before US courts, and demand “compensation” for funds spent by the US federal government in combating the disease.
The Li Wenliang Global Public Health Accountability Act of 2020
Named after the Chinese ophthalmologist who first alerted the world to the appearance of the coronavirus, this bill would levy sanctions against government officials who are:
“Complicit in, ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, or financially benefits from, acts intended to deliberately conceal or distort information about a public health emergency of international concern including coronavirus disease 2019 (commonly known as COVID-19)”
The bill would also target those who have indirectly “materially” assisted such officials by, for instance, providing financial or technological aid.
The use of Li Wenliang’s name is a deliberate attempt to “Sinicize” the pandemic, an effort already being undertaken by senior US officials such as the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who regularly refers to the coronavirus as the "Wuhan Virus”.
US insistence on identifying the virus by a geographic appellation led to the scrapping of a joint statement by foreign ministers of the G-7 sates in March. China, meanwhile continues to denounce the US’s attempts to “slander” Beijing by persistently invoking Wuhan.
Stop COVID Act of 2020
The full form of the bill, “Stop China-Originated Viral Infectious Diseases Act of 2020” is another attempt to link China to the pandemic. This bill would open up China to lawsuits by waiving its sovereign immunity before US courts:
A foreign state shall not be immune from the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States in any case where such foreign state is found, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to have discharged a biological weapon
The bill echoes a popular US conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 virus is a biological weapon that was leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, a claim that has not been substantiated by any real evidence.
A similar bill has also been introduced by the hawkish Republican senator Tom Cotton and representative Dan Crenshaw. Their version is titled “Holding the Chinese Communist Party Accountable for Infecting Americans Act of 2020” and would also allow US persons to sue China for wrongful deaths caused by COVID-19. However, their bill is predicated on the assumption of Chinese culpability, and pre-supposes that Beijing is to blame for the death of US citizens.
Stripping sovereign immunity has been deployed as a US tactic before. Perhaps the most salient instance is the use of US courts to prosecute Iranian acts of “terrorism”. US courts have awarded US citizens billions of dollars against the Islamic Republic in various judgements, which remain controversial outside the US, and are generally deemed to be contrary to international law.
Chinese Government COVID-19 Accountability Act
The strategy proposed by this bill would demand compensation from China for all the expenses incurred by the United States in fighting the coronavirus outbreak. It directs the Secretary of the Treasury to devise a plan for extracting “reimbursements” from China upon passage.
Presumably, this would include either refusing to pay further interest on US treasuries held by China or even expropriate these holdings outright. China is the world’s largest holder of US debt, holding in excess of a trillion dollars of US securities. Expropriating this debt would effectively signal the end of globalization based trade as we know it, and there is no way of calculating the second order effects such an act would have on global markets and trade.
Sources and Methods
Trump administration mulling multiple punitive measures and retaliation against China
In private, Trump and aides have discussed stripping China of its “sovereign immunity,” aiming to enable the U.S. government or victims to sue China for damages.
Some administration officials have also discussed having the United States cancel part of its debt obligations to China, two people with knowledge of internal conversations said.
US trying to “stigmatize” and “smear China - Spokesperson Geng Shuang
The world has already reached the clear, fair consensus that China's contribution bought precious time for the international community to enhance preparedness. Mr. Pompeo's attempt to smear China's efforts will not succeed.
Background: Lawsuits against state supporters of terrorism
A 1996 amendment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) enables American victims of international terrorist acts supported by certain States designated by the State Department as supporters of terrorism — Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and until recently, Iraq — to bring suit in federal court to seek monetary damages.