Legal action against China is political grandstanding by US politicians

On April 21, Eric Schmitt, the attorney general for the US state of Missouri, filed a civil lawsuit against China aiming to hold it legally responsible and demand damages over the outbreak of COVID-19. "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," Schmitt stated. "They must be held accountable for their actions." The claims also proceeded to claim that China "hoarded" masks and personal protective equipment, which led to Americans missing out.

Such a civil suit is nonsense. Not only does it fail to acknowledge the facts, which include the American government's own negligence, but also it doesn't stand any chance of success due to the fact you cannot sue a sovereign state. That, of course, isn't what this is designed to do: This move is an obvious and opportunistic political stunt designed to grandstand for public support in a solid Republican state and support the re-election campaign of its governor, Mike Parson, this November. Unfortunately, this kind of thing is going to become more common in the US as the politics of blaming China is weaponized.

Can you sue a sovereign state in a private setting? There are both political and legal obstacles which inhibit one from doing so. First of all, international law is not civil law, it is designed to govern the relationships between states and operates on the reality that it is only upheld and enforceable through the political power of nations that will it, as neorealist theory notes the international system is in de-facto "anarchic" and thus not truly comparable to a legal system within a country, not least in terms of private litigation.

States can have disputes between themselves and use multilateral bodies to do so, but it is legally unfeasible and impossible for a private legal system to operate on a global level where individual parties make claims against governments.

The layout of the international system thus builds into the next point, where in American courts (and others) the doctrine of "Sovereign Immunity" applies: This means that the government of the US, and therefore by extension others, cannot be brought to any civil or criminal prosecution in American courts. This legal concept has its roots in the creation of the Westphalian state system and thus the norm of "national sovereignty."

As Ashurst.com notes: "It derives from the theory of the sovereign equality of states, as a consequence of which one state has no right to judge the actions of another by the standards of its national law." Thus, the sovereignty of a foreign government cannot be undermined by the courts of another nation. Therefore, China cannot be sued.

But if China cannot be successfully sued, then why is the state of Missouri doing this? The answer is politics. In the US, it is common for politicians to showcase particular sentiments and rhetoric to the public for political gain without substantive action, derived from the country's evangelical protestant heritage.

Missouri is a solid Republican state, whereby its population is more inclined toward believing anti-China narratives concerning the outbreak of COVID-19, not least when the broader national context is doing so. Its governor, Mike Parson, is campaigning for re-election this year. This is his first shot at a full term as he was not elected the first time but had ascended to the position in 2018 following the resignation of Eric Greitens.

Given this, like what we are seeing in so many other instances in the US, the state administration is weaponizing anti-China populism in order to capitalize on the anger and disillusionment of its own population amid the COVID-19 outbreak. It promises absolutely no results whatsoever, yet it acts as an opportunistic venting point for nationalist indignation.

Thus, it is likely as the year continues more and more of these kinds of stunts will emerge, with elections on the horizon, few incumbents will take responsibility for their own failures and seek to deflect the country's chaotic state onto Beijing. The American public thus has the opportunity to rightfully blame its own politicians, or pursue ridiculous and unjustified claims of compensation against a foreign government which will never get anywhere or offer correction for what has happened.