(TibetanReview.net, Nov23’25) – The US state of Missouri will try to seize assets owned by China to collect a $24 billion default judgment it had won earlier this year in its case that accused the Chinese Communist Party-state of lying to the world about the Covid-19 pandemic that began in its city of Wuhan, said a KSNF Joplin news report carried by yahoo.com/news/ Nov 22, citing the state’s Attorney General Catherine Hanaway. China has rejected the judgment and vowed to retaliate, if necessary,
The report did not say what assets, if any. China and its functionaries named in the judgement own in the state. The judgment is against the Chinese government, the Communist Party of China, several national agencies, provincial and local governments around Wuhan and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
US District Judge Stephen Limbaugh entered the verdict in March after China did not defend itself in the lawsuit. Speaking to reporters at her office Nov 19, Hanaway has said she was working to compile a list of properties and other assets owned by government agencies named in the lawsuit.
“We can’t go after Chinese individuals or companies necessarily,” Hanaway has said. “I might be proven wrong over time, but my belief is that we’ve got to go after those assets actually owned by China.”
In his ruling, Limbaugh wrote that China concealed the true nature of Covid-19 so it could stockpile protective gear that could limit spread of the virus.
“China’s pattern of actions strongly suggests that it had knowledge of the existence and human-to-human transmission of the Covid-19 virus as early as September 2019,” Limbaugh wrote. “China’s actions also suggest that China engaged in a deliberate campaign to suppress information about the Covid-19 pandemic in order to support its campaign to hoard PPE from Missouri and an unsuspecting world.”
The judge found that Missouri lost tax revenue due to the pandemic and will experience a long-term loss of revenue as well, accepting the $8.04 billion estimate for the period 2020 to 2051. He added the state’s increased cost for protective gear, estimated at $123 million, due to the hoarding and tripled the amount to set the final judgment.
The Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, has issued a harsh statement about the judgment and Hanaway’s actions to enforce it.
The steps China took to limit the spread of infection and provide for its people “are acts of national sovereignty and are not subject to the jurisdiction of US courts,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu has said.
“The so-called pandemic compensation lawsuits fabricated by certain forces in the US ignore basic objective facts and violate fundamental legal principles; they are purely malicious frivolous lawsuits and political manipulation, with extremely sinister intentions.”
China will not pay and will retaliate if necessary, Pengyu has said, “to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests in response to the so-called lawsuits and judgments from the US.”
The report noted that the case was first filed by Eric Schmitt, who is now a US Senator, and continued by Andrew Bailey, now co-deputy director of the FBI. Hanaway was appointed attorney general in September.