US lawyers sue China for TRILLIONS of dollars as they accuse Beijing of negligence for allowing coronavirus outbreak to erupt before covering it up
As COVID-19 spreads and disrupts economies worldwide, people have started to band together to take class action against China. Taking China to the courts to sue for trillions of dollars in reparation sounds like a great way to pump money back into all those economies wrecked by COVID-19.
It makes people feel good to look like they are taking on the giant. David versus Goliath.
But there are definitely problems in their argument. For one, China's best defence would be that the damage to economies was not due to China's negligence, but rather the negligence of other countries in failing to act after China has filed its notification to the WHO on 31 December 2019. Any country which did not take any form of substantial action in the first two weeks of the notification can rightly be argued as having neglected to take the warning seriously. After all, in those initial weeks, Taiwan took strong action and it has saved Taiwan from having to enforce widespread lockdowns like those in Europe and the United States. Taiwan has unwittingly became evidence that heeding the notification from China actually can work.
And if China manages to argue its way out of this case, it can turn the tables. It can sue the U.S. for failing to take adequate steps to prevent the spread of the virus in the U.S., thereby causing a global recession (and maybe even depression) as the world's number one economy goes into lockdown. The problem for the U.S. is that China would not be wrong. There is enough evidence in the public domain to show what the U.S. has (or has not) done to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within its shores. It is especially problematic for the U.S. because President Trump spent much of February downplaying the threat of COVID-19, and that evidence is widely available. For an economy that is already taking damage from the lockdown, any further need to compensate the rest of the world will throw the U.S. economy into a pit that is going to be extremely difficult to climb out from.
So while it may make the plaintiffs feel big and important as they pretend they are David taking on Goliath, the truth is that they are more like David walking to face Goliath without staff, sling, or stone. It is brave to take on a giant, but bravery and foolishness are divided by only a thin line. If they want to do foolish and futile things to make themselves feel good for a while, they can always smoke weed.
As COVID-19 spreads and disrupts economies worldwide, people have started to band together to take class action against China. Taking China to the courts to sue for trillions of dollars in reparation sounds like a great way to pump money back into all those economies wrecked by COVID-19.
It makes people feel good to look like they are taking on the giant. David versus Goliath.
But there are definitely problems in their argument. For one, China's best defence would be that the damage to economies was not due to China's negligence, but rather the negligence of other countries in failing to act after China has filed its notification to the WHO on 31 December 2019. Any country which did not take any form of substantial action in the first two weeks of the notification can rightly be argued as having neglected to take the warning seriously. After all, in those initial weeks, Taiwan took strong action and it has saved Taiwan from having to enforce widespread lockdowns like those in Europe and the United States. Taiwan has unwittingly became evidence that heeding the notification from China actually can work.
And if China manages to argue its way out of this case, it can turn the tables. It can sue the U.S. for failing to take adequate steps to prevent the spread of the virus in the U.S., thereby causing a global recession (and maybe even depression) as the world's number one economy goes into lockdown. The problem for the U.S. is that China would not be wrong. There is enough evidence in the public domain to show what the U.S. has (or has not) done to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within its shores. It is especially problematic for the U.S. because President Trump spent much of February downplaying the threat of COVID-19, and that evidence is widely available. For an economy that is already taking damage from the lockdown, any further need to compensate the rest of the world will throw the U.S. economy into a pit that is going to be extremely difficult to climb out from.
So while it may make the plaintiffs feel big and important as they pretend they are David taking on Goliath, the truth is that they are more like David walking to face Goliath without staff, sling, or stone. It is brave to take on a giant, but bravery and foolishness are divided by only a thin line. If they want to do foolish and futile things to make themselves feel good for a while, they can always smoke weed.
No comments:
Post a Comment