BEIJING, April 24. /TASS/. The crusade by US state governments to pursue damages from the novel coronavirus pandemic at the expense of China points to the hegemony of the US ruling elite and the desire to shift its own responsibility on to others, Zhou Weidi, professor and vice dean of the Institute of Economics and Business Administration with the Central China Normal University (Wuhan), told TASS on Friday.

"Such actions clearly demonstrate the hegemonic nature [of the work of several US state officials], since they are taking any steps that they want," he explained. "The epidemic started in Wuhan, this is an indisputable fact, but the United States and the global community had been informed on time about the extremely dangerous nature of the coronavirus. However, at the time, US officials ignored these warnings, and now they are trying to shift blame on China."

The expert reiterated that on January 23, the world was once again reminded of the severity of the virus, when due to the quick spread of COVID-19, the Chinese government was forced to introduce unprecedented measures, like closing off the city of Wuhan. He noted that despite the looming epidemiological threat, the US failed to take any vigorous steps for a long time.

"Besides, the structure of US administrative governance varies from the Chinese model. This is why the measures taken by the officials of separate states differ from the actions of the US president," Zhou Weidi pointed out. The expert stressed that the fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic in the United States is occurring in the absence of unified rules and norms aimed to combat the disease.

He added that the statements claiming that the coronavirus was artificially created in Wuhan labs or that "China is developing a biological weapon" are scientifically baseless and false.

Earlier, the (US) Missouri state government issued a statement alleging that the Chinese government had covered up information about the spread of the novel coronavirus. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit against the Chinese government, demanding that it compensate the economic damages caused by the pandemic. Missouri is the first US state to sue China, however, several American experts predict that this lawsuit will be overturned, since the US government grants immunity to foreign countries in civil and criminal court proceedings taking place on US soil. Earlier, private citizens filed similar lawsuits against China with the aim of getting significant compensation payouts.