Chinese Government Threatens Chris Smith

Press Release

The Chinese government through its propaganda organ the Global Times threatened Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey and a handful of American lawmakers and officials seeking to legally empower victims of the COVID-19 pandemic to bring lawsuits in U.S. courts against the Chinese government.

The Global Times wrote on May 14, "China is extremely dissatisfied with the abuse of litigation by the US against China over the COVID-19 epidemic, and is considering punitive countermeasures against US individuals, entities and state officials. China won't just strike back symbolically but will impose countermeasures that will make them feel the pain, analysts said."

The article continued, "Smith has also been a frequent instigator on China-related topics, particularly on so-called human rights issues. In March 2019, Smith introduced legislation to tackle China's political influence in the US by saying "Beijing's influence operations are sophisticated and threatening.'"

Smith said: "Sanctions will not silence me or anyone who demands genuine accountability for this horrific pandemic. In my state of New Jersey alone, more than ten thousand people have died from COVID-19. Beijing cannot continue to hide, lie and now threaten to stop us from demanding the truth."

Smith is the prime author of H.R.6524 - Compensation for the Victims of State Misrepresentations to the World Health Organization Act of 2020 a bill he introduced on April 17th joined by Rep. Ron Wright (R-TX) to waive the Foreign Immunities Act to legally empower U.S. citizens to sue the government of China for monetary damages, "for personal injury or death, or damage to or loss of property, occurring in the United States as a result of a willful or grossly negligent misrepresentation of information to the World Health Organization."

Additionally, on Friday (May 15th) Smith, joined by Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), introduced H.R. 6915 to establish a truth commission tasked to with compiling the factual record on the origins of and response to COVID-19 by both China and the World Health Organization (WHO) and make recommendations for future improvement.

The Smith-Cuellar truth commission legislation states that "With the onset of the COVID-19 the Government of the People's Republic of China provided factually-inaccurate information to the WHO and Director-General Ghebreyesus, resulting in the spread of disinformation globally about the pandemic."

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