Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is being sued by Communist China for tens of billions of dollars in damages.
It’s part of the Chinese government’s efforts to silence American critics over its role in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The People’s Government of Wuhan Municipality, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology filed the lawsuit against Schmitt, FBI co-deputy director Andrew Bailey, and the state of Missouri, seeking roughly $50 billion in damages.
The lawsuit comes in direct retaliation for a case Schmitt filed against China in 2020 while serving as Missouri’s attorney general.
That case, which accused the Chinese government of withholding information about COVID-19 and failing to contain the outbreak, resulted in a $24 billion judgment against China earlier this year.
“I’ve been banned from Communist China, and now I am being sued and targeted by Communist China in a $50 billion lawfare campaign, and I’ll wear it like a badge of honor,” Schmitt said.
“China’s sinister malfeasance during the COVID-19 pandemic led to over a million Americans losing their lives, economic turmoil that rocked our country for years, and an enormous amount of human suffering, and as Missouri Attorney General I filed suit to hold them accountable,” Schmitt said. “Instead of trying to defend its indefensible behavior, Communist China responded with frivolous lawfare, attempting to absolve themselves of all wrongdoing in the early days of the pandemic.”
The Chinese lawsuit accused Schmitt, Bailey, and Missouri of damaging the reputations of China, Wuhan, and the associated research facilities through what the complaint called “malicious vexatious litigation, fabricating enormous disinformation, and spreading stigmatizing and discriminating slanders.”
In addition to the money, China is demanding that apologies be published in major media outlets including The New York Times, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Chinese media outlets.
Schmitt filed his original lawsuit against the People’s Republic of China in early 2020, shortly after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit named several Chinese government ministries, the Communist Party of China, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences as defendants.
At the time, Schmitt accused the Chinese government of withholding critical information about the COVID-19 virus, failing to contain the outbreak, and actively hoarding high-quality personal protective equipment while producing and selling lower-quality PPE for the rest of the world.
“This novel lawsuit is factually baseless, legally meritless, and any fake judgment a Chinese court issues in this lawsuit we will easily beat back and keep from being enforced against the people of Missouri or me,” Schmitt said. “This is their way of distracting from what the world already knows, China has blood on its hands.”
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said the state remained “undeterred in our mission to collect on our $24 billion judgment that was lawfully handed down in federal court.”
“I find it extremely telling that the Chinese blame our great state for ‘belittling the social evaluation’ of The Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Hanaway said. “This lawsuit is a stalling tactic and tells me that we have been on the right side of this issue all along.”