U.S. Judge Finds China Liable for Covid Missteps, Imposes $24 Billion Penalty

A federal judge in Missouri found the Chinese government responsible for covering up the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and hoarding protective equipment in a ruling on Friday. He entered a judgment of more than $24 billion that Missouri officials vowed to enforce by seizing Chinese assets.

The lawsuit, filed by the Missouri attorney general’s office in April 2020, during the early months of the pandemic, accused the Chinese government of withholding information about the existence and spread of the virus and then of cutting off the supply of personal protective equipment, or P.P.E., from the rest of the world. China did not respond to the allegations in court, and officials at the country’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

In his ruling, Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. wrote that “China was misleading the world about the dangers and scope of the Covid-19 pandemic” and had “engaged in monopolistic actions to hoard P.P.E.” Those actions, he said, hampered the early response to the pandemic in the United States and made it impossible to purchase enough equipment for medical providers responding to the virus.

Judge Limbaugh, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, imposed the judgment against China, its governing Communist Party, local governments in China, as well as a health agency and a laboratory in the country.

Missouri’s attorney general, Andrew Bailey, said in a statement that the ruling held China accountable for its actions.

“China refused to show up to court, but that doesn’t mean they get away with causing untold suffering and economic devastation,” said Mr. Bailey, a Republican. “We intend to collect every penny by seizing Chinese-owned assets, including Missouri farmland.”

Judge Limbaugh, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, initially dismissed Missouri’s lawsuit. But the case was returned to him by an appellate court, and he held a bench trial in January at the federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau, Mo. No one argued on behalf of China at the hearing.

In 2020, shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Chinese officials disputed its legitimacy. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, said at the time that the suit was “very absurd” and “has no factual and legal basis at all.”

But Judge Limbaugh said Missouri’s lawyers showed that China knew that the virus was spreading — and that it was spreading from person to person — long before it shared that information with the world. He also said Missouri showed that China took steps to nationalize American factories in China to produce protective equipment, which limited the supply available for export and drove up prices in places like Missouri. The judge noted that Covid-19 was the third-leading cause of death in Missouri in 2020 and 2021.

Senator Eric Schmitt, who was Missouri’s attorney general when the lawsuit was filed, celebrated the judgment on social media on Friday.

“When I was AG in Missouri,” wrote Mr. Schmitt, a Republican, “I sued China for unleashing Covid on the world.” He added that “Missouri can now seize assets.”