China urged “a few US politicians to stop the blame game” when asked about the letter US President Donald Trump sent to the World Health Organization on Monday.
“The US letter is full of vagueness, it tries to mislead the public to smear China and shift the blame away from its own incompetent response, currently Covid-19 is still spreading in the US, the most pressing task is solidarity and cooperation to save lives. We urge a few US politicians to stop the blame game and together defeat the virus,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters Tuesday.
When it came to payments to the global health body, Zhao said “paying assessed contribution in full and on time is the obligation of every member state of the WHO.”
“Supporting the WHO is upholding multilateralism and supporting international cooperation. To save lives, China abides by the WHO rules and pays its assessed contribution in full,” he added.
What happened? US President Donald Trump late Monday threatened to permanently pull US funding from the WHO if it does not “commit to major substantive improvements in the next 30 days.”
In a letter to WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Trump said, “It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world. The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China.”
“My administration has already started discussions with you on how to reform the organization. But action is needed quickly. We do not have time to waste.”
