COVID-19: Calls grow for China to be held accountable and liable for $18t over deaths and economic damage

The Chinese government can be held accountable and liable for deaths and economic damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a former US National Security Council official has said.

Jamie Metzl, who worked in the Clinton Administration and as a member of a World Health Organisation expert advisory committee will make the call in conjunction with other high-level members of the Heritage Foundation Nonpartisan Commission on China and COVID-19, whose report will be released Monday.

Other Commission members include former US Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield, former US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, and former Democratic US Senator Heidi Heitkamp.

The report will call on Congress to change the law that grants states sovereign immunity and empower US courts to hear claims against China and select Chinese companies related to the estimated US$18 trillion in losses the pandemic cost the US.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said in 2022 that Australia’s GDP took a $158 billion hit in cumulative losses from the pandemic and associated lockdowns and closed borders.

Mr Metzl said Australia could also change its law to prompt citizen-led class lawsuits that would hold China accountable for its cover-up of how the virus started.

The report proposes amending the US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to give US courts jurisdiction over a sovereign’s in-country assets in the event of a foreign government directly or indirectly sparking a pandemic that kills more than 1 million Americans and also prevents a comprehensive investigation into its origins.

“What this will do is open US courts for up to US $18 trillion of claims against China, Chinese state-owned enterprises and other entities associated with the Chinese government,” Mr Metzl said in an exclusive interview with The Nightly.

“We know that there are class action lawyers in the US who are actively looking at this and would move forward with mega tort claims should this legislation be passed.

“So it’s a really big deal. We recognise this would be a very, very aggressive step but believe we have no other choice.

“If China isn’t willing to hold itself accountable for this terrible and totally avoidable pandemic, we have no other choice but to take our actions to try to hold the Chinese government accountable.”

Mr Metzl, whose just-released book Superconvergence explores the effects of artificial intelligence, genome sequencing and gene editing, has been one of the world’s leading voices since early 2020 raising the possibility the SARS-CoV-2 virus spilled over as a result of a research-related incident in Wuhan and calling for a full investigation.

Mr Metzl said he believes there is a “decent chance” a version of the Commission’s proposal will find support in Congress because of the growing bipartisanship on China policy from the Republicans and Democrats.

Asked if Australia should amend its Foreign States Immunities Act in the same way, he said: “Absolutely yes.”

“Australia’s Scott Morrison was one of the first global leaders to call for a meaningful origins investigation and, outrageously, Australia was punished by China for having the temerity to suggest that we should get to the bottom of COVID-19 origins,” he said.

“Scott Morrison was 100 per cent correct in 2020 and the call for a full investigation is even more urgently required today. We can’t just sit back waiting for the next pandemic. If China isn’t willing to investigate COVID-19 origins, we can’t simply give them a pass and move on.

“Future generations will blame us for not taking the necessary actions now, and that’s why, as a proxy for China holding itself accountable, we are proposing a very strong mechanism for holding China accountable.”

Metzl said that ultimately, only accountability would encourage the CCP to behave in a manner next time that could prevent an even worse pandemic.

“Holding China accountable for COVID-19 isn’t just retribution,” Mr Metzl said, “but the one of the best investments we can make in a safer future for everyone, including the people of China.”

While the idea of removing sovereign immunity for a foreign government is drastic it is not unprecedented.

Congress has previously amended the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to enable victims of terrorism to sue foreign governments for harm caused by attacks in the United States.

COVID-19, which first emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019 is calculated to have caused up to 36 million deaths worldwide.

China shut down Chinese social media posts after an initial case was reported online on December 8.

As part of its obfuscation, the CCP even accused the United States of importing the virus and said there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission when it belatedly reported the virus to the WHO on December 31.

This is despite whistleblower medics, including Li Wenliang alerting friends about a new SARS-like virus circulating. He was reprimanded before he died of the death a few weeks later.

The global community could also try and seek compensation from China using the WHO’s International Health Regulations, the International Court of Justice and Permanent Court of Arbitration, The World Trade Organisation, bilateral investment treaties and even the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

But Mr Metzl said China’s economic coercion of Australia, when it imposed billions in tariffs on wine, coal and barley in retaliation for Mr Morrison’s COVID-19 inquiry request, had scared the international community into silence.

“Tragically, China was pretty effective in bullying Australia to send a message to everyone else,” he said.

Australia’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and opposition spokeswoman Michaelia Cash were contacted for comment.