Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced Tuesday that the state is now being sued by the municipal government of Wuhan, China—the city widely known as the origin of the global coronavirus pandemic. The suit is seen as direct retaliation for Missouri’s groundbreaking 2020 lawsuit against China, which resulted in a $24 billion judgment in U.S. federal court.
Hanaway dismissed China’s legal maneuver as a desperate stalling tactic. “The Chinese blame our great state for ‘belittling the social evaluation’ of the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” she said. “This tells me we have been on the right side of this issue all along.”
Missouri’s original lawsuit accused China of exacerbating the spread of COVID-19, blocking the global flow of critical medical supplies, and misleading the world about the virus’s threat. The suit highlighted how China hoarded personal protective equipment (PPE) while simultaneously covering up details about the virus’s transmission and severity.
The $24 billion judgment, issued by a federal court, remains the largest ever handed down in Missouri and one of the largest ever against a foreign government. Now, with China refusing to comply, Hanaway has begun proceedings to seize Chinese-owned assets in the United States under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
In response, China filed a $50 billion countersuit in the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court, accusing Missouri and its former top legal officials—Sen. Eric Schmitt and former AG Andrew Bailey—of politicizing the pandemic. Chinese officials claim Missouri’s legal action was meant to stigmatize Wuhan and slander the Chinese Communist Party.
China has publicly rejected Missouri’s lawsuit as a “politically motivated farce” and said it poses a threat to the country’s national interests. Hanaway responded sharply, promising to pursue Chinese financial and property assets tied to the original defendants.
“China leaked the virus, hoarded PPE, never showed up to court, and now wants to sue us in Wuhan,” she posted on X.
Senator Eric Schmitt called the $50 billion countersuit “frivolous lawfare” and vowed that any judgment from a Chinese court would be meaningless in the United States. “I’ll wear this lawsuit like a badge of honor,” he said.
