Can we sue China? Should we?

Let this lawyer answer your question

@ragingloli Thanks for the video.
Legaly one can’t do anything civily, but there are lots of other things we can do.
For example we could boycott all of the useless crap imported from China. Also we could invest in local smartphone products and not buy Apple’s new iPhones untill they are locally made. The bad side is that the new iPhones would be made more expensive to pay a living wage for Americans.

I wonder what else you could do?
Maybe kick China out of the security council for a year.
Ect.
Individuals might not be able to sue China, but our government can.

A total dick move is to put a stop payment on our debt owed to China’s as payment for damages. That would be possible. It would tank the world economy but would be shanafrued (sour grapes).

The real question isn’t whether China was negligent in how they handled the virus but where they got it. China has been caught smuggling live viral cultures out of Kanada, and the head of virology at Harvard was recently arrested for conducting scientific espionage on behalf of China. While China may have been careless, it’s far from the first time a bug has escaped a bio-military lab and it won’t be the last. What we need to know is who was creating a virus which seems to preferentially target the old, the sick, the weak, and the poor.

The billionaire oligarchs who rule the world have been Malthusians for more than a century, and they’ve been working hard to figure out some way to kill billions of humans beings to make the rest easier to rule. While billionaires like Elon Musk and Richard Branston try to establish space travel to allow them to escape whatever Apocalypse is being brewed in a lab somewhere, it would be good to know which of our evil overlords is preparing a virus to enact eugenic cleansing.

@RedDeerGuy1 Schadenfreude doesn’t mean sour grapes, it means taking pleasure in the misfortune of others, especially when you feel they deserve it.

But you’re correct that it would be devastating. Neo-liberal doctrine involves forcing every nation on Earth to trade for everything so that their economies are so inextricably linked that conflict or war becomes a mutual suicide pact. This is why, for example, the IMF forces developing countries to sell their food supplies even when they can’t feed their own populations, then buy more expensive food on the open market from elsewhere. To start tearing up agreements with China would result in both worldwide chaos and the great likelihood of military conflict.

Personally, I’m expecting the current pandemic crisis to incite at least a limited nuclear exchange somewhere, probably either between India and Pakistan or China and Taiwan, specifically because those neo-liberal chains are starting to loosen.

@smash It’s also killing blacks and hispanics at hogher rates.

@Patty I read about the American in Wuhans lab. I’m not sure exactly what happened at this point. Once that is confirmed, if ever, I’d want justice for all these folks.

The Chinese gov’t/military industrial complex has silently and stealthily been impregnating its tendrils into any resources it can all over the world for decades. Left unchecked they’ll slowly control everything so it’s not much of a legal matter, it’s more of an economic and military one. This virus blunder hopefully will bring out what they have been up to when people rightfully are pissed off and start to look at China more closely. The leaders in China don’t give a flying F about anyone, not even their own people.

The place to sue would be the ICC (International Criminal Court) but (oops) the US isn’t a member.

What would we gain? We are all in this together and need to cooperate. For example, a lot of medical equipment comes from China.

It’s a deflection from how the USA is coping. The truth is that what happens in any country affects every other country. It’s time for greater cooperation, not lesser as the scientists know.

And by the way, who do you think is lending us all the money that the US is throwing at the problem now?

Yeah, let’s sue! That will really help.

Why should we sue? China says the US Military brought the virus into their country. It could take several lifetimes to unravel this he said she said scenario only to end with no sure outcome. The only people making any money out of this would be the lawyers

I agree with @RedDeerGuy1 that boycotting China’s products is the best answer. Foreign countries aren’t under US dominance so even if our courts ruled that they were guilty, we have no legal leg to collect. Anyway, trump would pardon them because it would be bad for his company’s business or have you forgotten that Jared is sleeping with the enemy

@SEKA I agree in the main but In a global economy, we’re all sleeping with the enemy. That’s why the trade wars are so stupid.

The only way to stop sleeping with the enemy is to crawl out of bed. It has to start somewhere

I reckon what we can takeaway from all this is the whispers about a bull in a china shop appear to have been validated.
Work that out & stay on trend!

It would be far more practical to just blame China, since that is the most important thing, it seems… The blame game always wins out.

It seems to me the stories of COVID-19 originating in a lab have not moved past the conspiracy level. I’ll be more inclined to support punishing China when it’s confirmed (not that we can ever get a straight answer out of them). China has done a lot that’s worthy of punishment, but as long as we crave their lucrative market and cheap products nothing is going to happen.

I think it’s slightly more likely (i.e. unlikely) that Trump may be held responsible for his mishandling of the pandemic here .

What would be sue for? What compensation would the US be after?

And after that, would all those Afghani and Iraqi victims of colonial drone terrorism be allowed to sue the colonies?

@Patty_Melt covid originated from a wet market in China, the kind where poachers sell rare animals for eating, not some Bio lab nice try though.
Before trying the blame game why not Google where the Pandemic of 1918 originated from and that one killed well over a million people world wide.

@SQUEEKY, nice try what? I attempted nothing covert. Read what I posted. I called it a rumor, and asked a hypothetical question based on that rumor.

As for the market, nobody has PROVED anything. If we’re from a bat, as many have said, then less likely the market, and more likely the caves they raid to get the main ingredient for bird nest soup. Bats are found in nearly all the same locations as the sought after nests.

Finger point at you, for all your unfounded assumptions.

I just read where they are introducing a bill which would allow the American people to sue China. IMHO I This is appropriate as this is a man made virus from bat DNA with HIV inserted in the genome. This was “created by and unleashed by China government with evil intent.“It is a NOT a reflection om the people of China. It is China’s communist government.

@elbanditoroso
$13.4 million lost by Americans to fraud due to COVID.
Job losses $47 million.
When you add it all up, it’s close to $7 Trillion dollars.

They can take that off what we owe them IF it’s their fault.
For perspective, we owe $843 Billion.

“Economists place a dollar value on human life in order to help balance the benefit of life saving regulations and their inevitable costs,” he explained, “Using these estimates, the deaths projected from the COVID-19 disease could easily cost the U.S. over $5 trillion.”

Medical expenses to treat infected people could cost an additional $2 trillion, Hicks added, noting that these estimates are optimistic.
https://www.newsweek.com/covid-19-could-cost-us-7-trillion-cause-worst-job-losses-since-depression-professor-estimates-1493673

How much we owe China:
https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-debt-to-china-how-much-does-it-own-3306355

I don’t believe this conspiracy theory at all.

America knew about COVID19 and didn’t do much for weeks, what about that? Can we sure Trump? The CDC? HHS? How is China more culpable than our own government. Plus, this holier than thou idea, what about if a pandemic started in the US? Do you really think it is impossible?

Saying China did not give us all of the information, they in the beginning were horrible even for their own citizens, not being fast enough to acknowledge alarm bells should be going off, but once they realized it was serious, they clamped down, they did tell other countries.

Even if you want to say China did not communicate with us enough, by January Europe was in the midst of a serious outbreak, we are friendly with those countries, we certainly could get information from there, we still did not do enough to protect America. Blocking flights from China was not enough, what about Europe, what about buying some tests early on to be able to test people who were flu negative, but had flu-like symptoms? We could have still developed our own tests, and the pharma people could have still had opportunity to make their money.

If we had know in January and February where cases were in America we could have shut down some cities, stopped flights, and kept most of the country functioning.

This mess was probably necessary for the American people to be grateful when we only close down a city in the future.

tryin to blame this all on China is to not take responsibility for the wrongs that were done by our own government. I do however think there needs to be something done about the consumption of wild animals and the wet markets. I think the only way to really cure this problem around the world is for the world to become better. No wars, less concern about gaining great riches. I see facebook posts of food being thrown away. We are about to have a shortage of some meats while there are animals waiting to be slaughtered. There is plenty of food from what I can tell, we waste too much. Caring about others is caring about ourselves.

Hey @JLeslie the 1918 Pandemic did originate from the states.

The answer is no to both questions.

@SQUEEKY2 Best evidence says that 1918 flu may have originated in Kansas. We’ll never know for sure though.

^^Good enough for me!

Good luck with that.

Avoid the tin foil hat

@tinyfaery That does not discount the lab theory. That lab did research on existing (natural) corona viruses.

If you hadn’t heard, my state was the first to file suit against China.

JEFFERSON CITY —Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of the state of Missouri against the Chinese government, Chinese Communist Party and other Chinese officials and institutions, according to a statement from Schmitt’s office.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday morning in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges, “During the critical weeks of the initial outbreak, Chinese authorities deceived the public, suppressed crucial information, arrested whistleblowers, denied human-to-human transmission in the face of mounting evidence, destroyed critical medical research, permitted millions of people to be exposed to the virus, and even hoarded personal protective equipment (“PPE”)—thus causing a global pandemic that was unnecessary and preventable.”

The lawsuit seeks relief on one count of public nuisance, one count of abnormally dangerous activities, and two counts of breach of duty. Remedies could include civil penalties and restitution, abatement of the public nuisance, cessation of abnormally dangerous activities, punitive damages and more, according to the statement.

“COVID-19 has done irreparable damage to countries across the globe, causing sickness, death, economic disruption, and human suffering. In Missouri, the impact of the virus is very real – thousands have been infected and many have died, families have been separated from dying loved ones, small businesses are shuttering their doors, and those living paycheck to paycheck are struggling to put food on their table,” Schmitt said in the statement. “The Chinese government lied to the world about the danger and contagious nature of COVID-19, silenced whistleblowers, and did little to stop the spread of the disease. They must be held accountable for their actions.”

The lawsuit notes the “immense negative impact” that COVID-19 has had on Missourians, pointing out the unprecedented number of jobless claims, the impact on Missouri’s unemployment rate, and the impact on the State’s budget now and in the future, according to the statement.
http://www1.komu.com/news/mo-attorney-general-sues-chinese-government?fbclid=IwAR3-LTLzWLoPKzGX7dLwORqF7kHnqTjNLHKPmB_ncDOkvAEWi3_LeylaOyE

Wow!
I got nothing else, just, wow.

Now the UK and Australia. Germany is a tabloid ‘invoice’, but along the same lines of sentiment.

“A report released earlier this month by the Henry Jackson Society, a conservative British think tank, argued that the G7 nations could sue China for 3.2 trillion pounds ($6.3 trillion).

It claimed that Australia could file for more than $58 billion in damages.
....
The German tabloid Bild, which is the most-read newspaper in Europe, published an “invoice” for China requesting 24 billion euros ($41 billion) for lost tourism revenue in March and April, 50 billion euros ($86 billion) for small business, and a further 149 billion euros ($255 billion) if German GDP falls by 4.2 per cent in 2020 as projected.

In an “open letter” to Mr Xi, the newspaper wrote that “your Government and your scientists had to know long ago that corona[virus] is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it”.

“Your top experts didn’t respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-20/coronavirus-china-sued-american-class-action-germany-sends-bill/12164106?fbclid=IwAR3Sd2lCjw9xTn1YaeINErZkBMtwt2la-7msILmHioOeR6q44tXz8Cs6jPM

Calling the “Bild” a tabloid is being very generous.
That rag is complete trash, and you really should not be referencing them.

@ragingloli It says “most read newspaper in Europe”? Everyone love trashy tabloids there or something? haha!

Once we start with suits – which have no standing – where does it end? Can New York sue the Feds for not providing PPEs? Can folks in states that open too soon sue their governors?

It truly seems lie a pointless political stunt to me.

Deflect. deflect, deflect…....

@KNOWITALL
It has bared breasts in it.

@KNOWITALL

And McDonald’s is the largest restaurant chain in the world. That must mean their food is the highest quality.

@janbb, the difference is knowledge. China could be accountable for knowledge they had and did not share. Preparedness for something which can be imagined but not expected is a different matter.

That doesn’t mean I think it is okay to not prepare, but it does make a difference with culpability.