中国法院已开始对北京和武汉当局及机构针对美国密苏里州因新冠肺炎指控提起的诽谤案进行审理。
A Chinese court has begun hearings in a defamation case filed by authorities and institutes in Beijing and Wuhan against the US state of Missouri over accusations tied to Covid-19.
武汉中级人民法院周一发布公告称，已于周五举行听证会，诉讼程序仍在继续。
In a notice on Monday, the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court said it held a hearing on Friday and legal proceedings were continuing.
该案于2025年4月30日由湖北省武汉市政府、中国科学院及其下属机构武汉病毒研究所（WIV）共同对密苏里州及其两位前总检察长埃里克·施密特和安德鲁·贝利提起诉讼。
The case was jointly filed on April 30, 2025 by the Wuhan government in Hubei province, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and its subordinate entity, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), against Missouri and two of its former attorneys general, Eric Schmitt and Andrew Bailey.
法院于同年5月7日受理此案。随后在12月，原告又将密苏里州现任总检察长凯瑟琳·哈纳维加入为共同被告。
The court accepted the case on May 7 that year. In the following December, the plaintiffs added Catherine Hanaway, Missouri’s current attorney general, as a co-defendant in the case.
原告称，被告“在美国策划、推动并实施恶意和滥用诉讼，捏造并传播虚假信息，并发表污名化和歧视性言论”，法院周一的声明中指出。原告补充称，这些行为严重侵犯了其名誉权，造成巨大损失。哈纳维已于去年12月收到法院文件，南华早报此前报道。
The plaintiffs said the defendants “orchestrated, promoted and executed malicious and abusive litigation in the US, fabricated and disseminated false information and issued stigmatising and discriminatory remarks”, according to the court statement on Monday. These actions had severely infringed upon the plaintiffs’ right of reputation and caused enormous losses, they added. Hanaway acknowledged receiving the court documents last December, the South China Morning Post previously reported.
法院文件显示，中国方寻求赔偿人民币3564.37亿元（约合535亿美元）。
Court documents showed that the Chinese parties were seeking 356.437 billion yuan (about US$53.5 billion) in compensation.
他们还要求美国被告在多平台公开道歉，包括《纽约时报》、CNN、《华尔街日报》、《华盛顿邮报》、YouTube，以及中国国家媒体《人民日报》和新华社。法院称，周五武汉法院举行了听证会，诉讼程序仍在进行。
They also demanded that the US defendants apologise publicly on multiple platforms, including The New York Times, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, YouTube, as well as Chinese state media outlets People’s Daily and Xinhua. On Friday, the Wuhan court held a hearing and legal proceedings were ongoing, it said.
此中国诉讼是两国之间持续的“以牙还牙”新冠肺炎诉讼的一部分。
The Chinese lawsuit forms part of ongoing tit-for-tat Covid-19 litigation between the two countries.
2020年，时任密苏里州总检察长的施密特对中国政府提起诉讼，指控大陆官员否认存在人传人风险、压制吹哨人，且未能控制疫情，致使病毒在全球蔓延。
In 2020, Schmitt, then Missouri’s attorney general, filed a lawsuit against the Chinese government alleging that mainland officials had denied the risk of human-to-human transmission, silenced whistle-blowers and failed to contain the outbreak, allowing the contagion to spread globally.
施密特当时表示，他寻求的是“为所有密苏里州民众因新冠疫情所经历的巨大生命损失、人类苦难和经济动荡寻求补偿，这场疫情已扰乱了全世界”。
At the time, Schmitt said he was seeking “recovery for the enormous loss of life, human suffering and economic turmoil experienced by all Missourians from the Covid-19 pandemic that has disrupted the entire world”.
该诉讼的其他被告包括中国国家卫生健康委员会、疫情最初被检测出的武汉市政府，以及武汉病毒研究所——该实验室是有关疫情起源的实验室泄漏指控的焦点。
Other defendants in the lawsuit included China’s National Health Commission, the municipal government of Wuhan – where the coronavirus outbreak was first detected – and the WIV, which was the focus of lab leak allegations related to the pandemic’s origins.
据当时的一份声明称，该实验室在疫情暴发初期宣称，自己因网上流传的阴谋论而“受到严重伤害”，这些阴谋论包括新病毒株是“人造的”以及“从武汉病毒研究所实验室泄漏”的说法。
The lab declared during the early days of the outbreak that it was “badly hurt” by conspiracy theories circulating online, including that the new virus strain had been “man-made” and “leaked from the WIV lab”, according to a statement at the time.
声明还称，其他指控包括“武汉病毒研究所被军方接管”、“一名武汉病毒研究所研究人员死于泄漏的病毒”、“一名武汉病毒研究所学生是零号病人”以及“一名武汉病毒研究所研究人员向当局举报称武汉病毒研究所负责人负有责任”。
It added that other allegations included “the WIV was taken over by the military”, “a WIV researcher died from the leaked virus”, “a WIV student is patient zero” and “a WIV researcher reported to authorities that the WIV chief was responsible”.
去年3月，一名美国联邦法官裁定，中国政府应对隐瞒新冠疫情早期阶段和囤积防护设备承担责任。该法官作出了有利于密苏里州的245亿美元缺席判决。
In March last year, a US federal judge ruled that the Chinese government bore responsibility for concealing the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak and stockpiling protective equipment. The judge entered a US$24.5 billion default judgment in favour of Missouri.