Friday on FNC’s “Fox & Friends,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) touted his legislative effort to hold China accountable for the coronavirus pandemic through the use of the U.S. court system.
The Missouri Republican argued China’s sovereign immunity should be taken away, given the severity of the pandemic’s impact on the U.S. economy.
“I’ve introduced legislation to actually change the law and allow every American citizen who has suffered because of the coronavirus from Wuhan, China, to allow them to sue,” he said. “You know, usually countries get in our courts what’s called sovereign immunity. It just means the country can’t be sued. We can change that with our own laws. And we should. We should tell China they don’t get a special immunity in our courts anymore. They have lied to the world. They’ve unleashed this pandemic on the world, the Beijing government has. They knew what they were doing. They knew that this was going to be a pandemic. They didn’t take steps to stop it. They lied. They need to be held accountable.”
Once the sovereign immunity was waived, Hawley said Chinese government assets in the United States become fair game.
“Well, they’ve got a lot of assets in this country, Ainsley, that courts can go after,” he said. “And, you know, I suspect the Chinese government won’t want their assets taken by courts and by plaintiffs. But, hey, you know, that’s fair game. In American law, that’s how it works for anybody else. If you’ve got assets out — assets out there and you want — and you won’t pay, then a court can go after those assets, can freeze them and turn them over to the plaintiff.”
“So, in this case, it would be in a normal court, in a federal court, in an American court, and you’d have the normal due process system,” Hawley added. “The only thing that needs to change for individuals at least to be able to sue is that we need to change the law so that China doesn’t get this special immunity. And that’s why I’ve introduced legislation to do it. But we’ve got to hold the Chinese government accountable. They’re trying to get out of this now. They’re trying to weasel out of it. They’re trying to say, oh, American military men started this virus. They brought it to China. That is such an unbelievable bunch of lies. We’ve got to hold them accountable.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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