US politicians' lawsuit farce against China a shame of civilization: People's Daily commentary

BEIJING - A commentary to be carried by the Sunday edition of the People's Daily slams some US politicians for politicizing the COVID-19 pandemic, stigmatizing China, and pursuing the so-called recrimination and retribution through frivolous litigations.

Such acts posed an open challenge to international rules and laws, said the commentary under the byline of Zhong Sheng.

The pandemic outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern, also "a force majeure" in law, the article noted.

Facts have shown that China's efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic are not the cause of the explosive virus outbreak in the United States, said the article.

Being the first country to report the pandemic does not make China the origin of the novel coronavirus, the commentary underscored, highlighting that the origin of the virus, a serious scientific matter, should only be the subject of study for scientists and medical experts.

"The couclusion should not be drawn on the basis of the lunatic imagination of some US politicians," said the article.

Citing views of Tom Ginsburg, a professor of international law at the University of Chicago, the article noted that talk of filing lawsuits against China is a political move by Republican leaders facing an election in November.

The commentary also raised the following questions:

The 1918 flu pandemic starting from the United States resulted in a huge humanitarian disaster across the world, has the United States been held accountable?

AIDS was first reported in the United States and then swept across the world, should the United States compensate 75 million HIV carriers and 35 million AIDS-related dead victims?

The 2008 financial turmoil triggered by Wall Street turned into a global financial crisis, and when will the United States repay the trillions of US dollars lost globally?

People should have the right to ask why the CT images of patients in the outbreak of Electronic-Cigarette-Associated Acute Lipoid Pneumonia in August last year in the United States are so similar to those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

What had happened in Fort Detrick in Maryland?

Patients without travel records to China died of COVID-19 in the United States as early as Feb 6. What time on earth did the United States discover the novel coronavirus for the first time?

Certain US politicians should not play dumb in the face of such questions. They must give answers to these questions, the article stressed.