Still, injured states are not without remedy.

Barring any prospect for effective litigation,

states could resort to self-help. The law of state responsibility permits injured states to
take lawful countermeasures against China by suspending their own compliance with
obligations owed to China as a means of inducing Beijing to fulfill its responsibilities and
debt (Article 49). Countermeasures shall not be disproportionate to the degree of gravity
of the wrongful acts and the effects inflicted on injured states (Article 51). The choice of
countermeasures that injured states may select is wide open, with only minimal
limitations. For example, countermeasures may not involve the threat or use of force or
undermine the human rights of China (Article 50). Except for these limitations, however,
the United States and other injured states may suspend existing legal obligations or
deliberately violate other legal duties owed to China as a means to induce Beijing to
fulfill its responsibilities and address the calamitous damages it has inflicted on the
world.

The menu for such countermeasures is as limitless as the extent that international law
infuses the foreign affairs between China and the world, and such action by injured
states may be individual and collective and does not have to be connected explicitly to
the kind or type of violations committed by China. Thus, action could include removal of
China from leadership positions and memberships, as China now chairs four of
15 organizations of the United Nations system. States could reverse China’s entry into
the World Trade Organization, suspend air travel to China for a period of years,
broadcast Western media in China, and undermine China’s famous internet firewall that
keeps the country’s information ecosystem sealed off from the rest of the world.
Remember that countermeasures permit not only acts that are merely unfriendly, but
also licenses acts that would normally be a violation of international law. But the
limitations still leave considerable room to roam, even if they violate China’s sovereignty
and internal affairs, including ensuring that Taiwanese media voices and officials are
heard through the Chinese internet firewall, broadcasting the ineptness and corruption
of the Chinese Communist Party throughout China, and reporting on Chinese coercion
against its neighbors in the South China Sea and East China Sea, and ensuring the
people of China understand the responsibility of the Chinese Communist Party in
unleashing a global contagion.