To claim compensation from China for COVID-19 losses has no legal basis
By Huang Jin
Since
March, some US senators, officials, media outlets, think tanks and
non-governmental organizations have been accusing China of spreading the novel
coronavirus, demanding the so-called compensations from China. Their
instigation has resulted in multiple lawsuits filed against the Chinese
government over the COVID-19 pandemic that demand China be held accountable and
request huge amount of compensations.
It is reported
that Missouri Attorney General in April filed a lawsuit in US District Court
for the Eastern District of Missouri, demanding that the Chinese government
take responsibility for the global pandemic and make compensations. This is an
extremely rare case that a local government of a country attempted to hold a
sovereign state accountable through a domestic court.
At present,
relevant scientific issues revolving around the COVID-19 pandemic are gradually
turning into some political topics requesting China to take responsibility and make
compensations, and are becoming a weapon for some international anti-China
forces to manipulate international public opinions.
All the
lawsuits filed against China in US courts over the COVID-19 pandemic, be them
non-governmental or government-led, are based on the presumption that the
Chinese government is responsible for the spread of the disease. Those who
filed these lawsuits just arrogantly assume that the virus came from China, and
the global spread of the virus was caused by the Chinese government’s inaction and failure to report the disease to the world. They
also hold that the Chinese government should compensate for the losses because
of its improper and inhumane response measures.
What they
believe is just groundless and has no basis in the international law.
Although China
was the first to report the COVID-19 disease, there is not a conclusion yet that
the virus indeed originated in the country. Neither the World Health
Organization (WHO) nor the global scientific community has confirmed the source
of it. The tracing of the virus should be an issue studied by scientists, not
something to be politicized.
Besides,
according to the international law, countries shall not be held accountable for
a disease no matter its origin is confirmed or not. There is no regulation in
the international law that a country where a virus starts shall compensate the
losses suffered by other countries. Even if Wuhan reported the disease first,
China does not have to take the state responsibility in
the international law, let alone the fact that the origin is still up in the
air. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was firstly spotted in the US and
then spread to the rest of the world, and Washington has never been requested
to shoulder the losses.
Chinese
government’s notification on and response to COVID-19
conform to the International Health Regulations (IHR). As a member country of
the WHO, China shall observe the IHR revised in 2005 and report timely to the
WHO when epidemic happens.
According to
the Articles 6 and 7 of the IHR, the core responsibility of member countries is
notification.
“Each State Party shall notify WHO, by the
most efficient means of communication available, and within 24 hours of
assessment of public health information, of all events which may constitute a
public health emergency of international concern within its territory in
accordance with the decision instrument, as well as any health measure
implemented in response to those events,”
the Article 6 stipulates, adding that “Following a
notification, a State Party shall continue to communicate to WHO timely,
accurate and sufficiently detailed public health information available to it on
the notified event, where possible including case definitions, laboratory
results, source and type of the risk, number of cases and deaths, conditions
affecting the spread of the disease and the health measures employed; and
report, when necessary, the difficulties faced and support needed in responding
to the potential public health emergency of international concern.”
And
the Article 7 notes that “If a State Party has evidence of an unexpected or
unusual public health event within its territory, irrespective of origin or
source, which may constitute a public health emergency of international
concern, it shall provide to WHO all relevant public health information. In
such a case, the provisions of Article 6 shall apply in full.”
According to a
timeline of China releasing information on COVID-19 and advancing international
cooperation on epidemic response released by the Xinhua News Agency on April 6,
the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Central China’s Hubei Province detected cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in
late December 2019, and the WHO’s information system received report on the
cases on December 31.
Starting January
3 this year, China has been regularly informing the WHO, relevant countries and
regions and China’s Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan about the
pneumonia outbreak, and began to inform the US of the pneumonia outbreak and
response measures on a regular basis. Facts speak louder than words. China has
fully, timely and effectively fulfilled its obligations in the IHR.
Based
on the state responsibility in the international law, a country must take the
legal consequences for its wrongful acts in international activities. The law
of state responsibility is of great significance for protecting the legitimate
rights and interests of victims, for safeguarding the international legal
order, and for preventing and rectifying international wrongful acts.
According
to the international law, there is an “internationally wrongful act of a State”
when conduct consisting of an action or omission: “attributable to the State
under international law;” and “constitutes a breach of an international
obligation of the State.”
China
has well fulfilled the obligation in the IHR and done nothing illegal, so it
shall not take the state responsibility for the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic
in the US and the rest of the world.
As a
matter of fact, the severe situation in the US today is totally caused by the
US government itself. In early January, China began to inform the US of the pneumonia outbreak and response
measures on a regular basis and has always kept the information updated. Besides,
the WHO also made decisive response from the very beginning, sending an alarm
to the world. It declared the epidemic a Public Health Emergency of
International Concern (PHEIC) on January 30.
Therefore, the
US should have enough time to take effective measures to cope with the health
crisis. However, it failed to exploit the window of opportunity and took no
effective measures, which finally led to the explosive spread of the virus in
the US. The losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic should be attributed to the
failure of the White House, and have no causal relationship at all with China’s pandemic response.
(Huang
Jin is president of the Chinese Society of International Law.)
To claim compensation from China for COVID-19 losses has no legal basis
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