Rightways: Tr;ump politicizing COVID-19

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The World Health Organization’s director-general expressed regret Wednesday at President Trump’s intent to withhold funding, and said the agency would seek to fill financing gaps from other donors as it battles the coronavirus pandemic.

US allies line up to condemn Donald Trump’s WHO funding suspension

EU foreign policy chief captures chorus of concern as health body expresses regret and assesses financial hit

President Donald Trump’s decision to halt US funding to the World Health Organization has triggered heavy criticism at home and abroad for depriving the global body of its biggest donor as it battles the coronavirus pandemic.

Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief, captured a chorus of international concern when he warned that all countries must work together closely to stem the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Deeply regret US decision to suspend funding to WHO,” he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “There is no reason justifying this move at a moment when their efforts are needed more than ever to help contain & mitigate the coronavirus pandemic.”

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, expressed regret at Mr Trump’s decision and said his organisation was assessing the impact and how to fill any funding gaps.

“This is a time for all of us to be united in our common struggle against a common threat, a dangerous enemy,” he told reporters. “When we are divided the virus exploits the cracks between us.”

Mr Trump shocked European allies on Tuesday when he announced that hundreds of millions of dollars in US funding would be suspended while a review was conducted to assess the WHO’s “role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus”.

He also criticised the organisation’s relationship with China. “American taxpayers provide between $400m-$500m per year to the WHO, in contrast China contributes roughly $40m a year, even less,” Mr Trump said. “As the organisation’s leading sponsor, the US has a duty to insist on full accountability.”

Critics countered that the White House was undermining the international response to the Covid-19 pandemic and other serious diseases in an effort to distract attention from questions over its own handling of the health emergency.

This is the time for solidarity, not for finger-pointing or undermining multilateral co-operation.

The European Commission said the EU backed the WHO in its efforts to contain the pandemic, had already provided additional funding and was looking into what it and its member states could do in response to the US move.

“This is the time for solidarity, not for finger-pointing or undermining multilateral co-operation,” the Commission said.

Ursula von der Leyen, Commission president, is due to host an online pledging conference on May 4 that will look at immediate funding gaps in combating the pandemic.

In Germany, Heiko Maas, foreign minister, said it did not help to “apportion blame” over the pandemic. Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, slammed Mr Trump’s decision as “indefensible” in the “midst of global pandemic”.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, branded the US move “very alarming”. “This is an example of a very selfish approach by the US authorities,” he said, according to the Tass news agency.

Mr Trump’s move was also condemned by Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and billionaire head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds,” he wrote on Twitter.

The US, where more than 26,000 people have died from Covid-19, the largest official national death toll, is the largest single contributor to the WHO. Of the roughly $500m it provides annually, $116m is mandated by the UN and about another $400m is in voluntary payments.

In Washington, the president’s move came under heavy fire from Democrats, while Republicans were largely supportive. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, described it as an “illegal” move that would be “swiftly challenged”.

“The president’s halting of funding to the WHO as it leads the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic is senseless,” she added.

Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said it was a “dangerous and reckless” move at a time when people in the US and across the world were dying from the virus.

But Republicans were supportive either because of concerns that the organization was too China-centric — echoing the claims of Mr Trump — or because of unease about international institutions.

“This is a critical time for worldwide public health and we cannot afford China apologists running the WHO,” said Lindsey Graham, a senator who generally backs US international engagement. “I support a suspension of funding . . . until there is new leadership at the WHO.”

Stephen Griffin, associate professor at the school of medicine at the UK’s University of Leeds, said Mr Trump’s decision was perhaps “one of the least productive, most short-sighted, self-motivated and hypocritical acts I have ever witnessed”.

China’s foreign ministry said Washington’s decision would “weaken the capabilities of the WHO, harm international co-operation against the epidemic, and affect various countries including the US itself domestically”.

But Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison also expressed concerns about the WHO’s handling of the pandemic, calling for greater transparency from the health body on the causes of the outbreak.

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Immoral to boost reelection by attacking WHO

US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with patients who have recovered from the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Washington was suspending funding to World Health Organization (WHO) while reviewing over the organization's "role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus." Since last week, Trump has launched a barrage of attacks on WHO, accusing the organization of being "China centric."

Mainstream public opinion both in the US and abroad believes Trump is anxiously making WHO a scapegoat to divert increasingly fiercer domestic criticisms for his botched epidemic response.

It should be taken as part of Trump's reelection campaign. Attacking WHO and labeling it as "China centric" could incite many Americans to unleash their anger over the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans amid the pandemic as well as their severely impacted life. Canvassing gatherings cannot be held at this moment, so finding scapegoats to let voters vent their anger has become the best campaign tactic. The US recent years has intensified its anti-China ideology, targeting WHO and China together could fan as much nationalism as possible in the US and covertly boost Trump's reelection.

Those in the US Congress who are furiously blasting WHO are from the Republican party. The White House has taken state apparatuses and public interests as campaign resources. Such political operations are quite immoral.

The global virus fight is at a critical juncture. The novel coronavirus is launching indiscriminate attacks against all the people regardless of nationality or race. WHO is the authoritative body that can coordinate the global anti-virus fight. Washington's crackdown on the WHO is a blow to the global endeavor against the coronavirus. The US is making lives of numerous people pay the price for its political infighting. This is a bloody plan.

So far epicenters of the pandemic are mainly in relatively developed regions and those hardest hit countries have comparatively strong ability to stem the pandemic on their own.

However, the risk of pandemic hitting underdeveloped areas is growing increasingly high. Those countries will tend to rely more on the support and assistance of the WHO. Any move at this time that may paralyze and weaken WHO will foster the pandemic and place human beings in a more vulnerable situation.

Washington's attack on the WHO is so unpopular that no country in the world has yet echoed. Only the Taiwan bogus regime supported Washington out of its own political interests. This isolated camp - the US plus the island of Taiwan - well explains "an unjust cause finds scant support."

Washington's attempts to shift the blame onto other countries and international organizations are doomed to fail. Its own mistakes cannot be more obvious, and buck-passing will only drive people to further investigate and define its responsibility for improper handling of the outbreak.

The US' attacks against the WHO is groundless. Taking buck-passing as one of the main battlefields of the presidential election will very much likely to suffer losses.

A sovereign country that investigates the WHO and treats international organizations so arrogantly won't be supported by international law.

Washington evaluates the WHO in accordance with how the organization has served the US. This goes against the purpose of WHO.

Such an arbitrary and overbearing act will surely help the world see clearly the true nature of the ongoing conflicts between the US and international organizations.

The US has no ability to reconstruct an international system. What it is doing now is pure destruction. The acts of the US are throwing the world into chaos and crippling the global system. The US political and legal framework cannot restrain its government from acting at its own will. This is the misfortune of the US and the entire world.

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