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China needs more experts in international law to beat US coronavirus lawsuits, academic says

  • Even though plaintiffs will never get any money out of Beijing, the action damages the national image, Peking University professor Liang Yunxiang says
  • US state of Missouri said in April it was suing the Chinese government over its handling of the coronavirus

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Legal action against China is damaging to the national image, a Peking University professor says. Photo: Reuters
China should hire international law specialists to take the fight to the United States as it confronts a raft of compensation suits in American courts for losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a Chinese academic said.
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“China is obviously trying to ignore any upcoming rulings,” Liang Yunxiang, a professor at Peking University who specialises in international affairs, said in an interview.

While there was little plaintiffs could actually do in terms of making China pay up, the suits themselves “would inflict further damage on China’s national image”, he said.

In an article published last week in International and Strategic Studies Report, an academic journal produced by the university, Liang said it was “not realistic to ignore all these lawsuits”.

“There could be consequences … political damage, or a spike of domestic nationalism that forced the government to take an even stronger stance against countries like the United States,” he said.

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In April, the US state of Missouri said it was suing the Chinese government over its handling of the coronavirus, saying it had caused severe economic losses. Since then, several class actions have been filed against China in Miami, California, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Texas.
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