Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from the World Health Organisation unless it demonstrates independence from China, in an escalation of his attack on the body.
In a letter to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, Mr Trump said he would take one of several dramatic actions unless the global health body committed to reform within 30 days.
"If the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the WHO permanent and reconsider our membership in the Organisation," he wrote.
The threat follows increasing efforts by Mr Trump to blame China for the global spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. He accuses the WHO of helping Beijing to hide the truth about the outbreak, which originated in Wuhan.
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Earlier on Monday, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House that the WHO was a “puppet of China”. The president last month froze US funding for the organisation in an effort that critics said was designed to deflect criticism of his handling of the crisis.
Since becoming president in 2017, Mr Trump has issued many empty threats while also pushing ahead with some pledges to withdraw from international agreements.
He has withdrawn the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the Iran nuclear accord and the Paris climate accord. But Mr Trump has also threatened to leave Nato and to withdraw troops from South Korea but has not followed through on the declarations.
The criticism of the WHO is directly tied to his mounting attacks on China, which many analysts believe will intensify ahead of the US presidential election in November.
Tougher stance
Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said Mr Trump’s attacks come as pressure grows among Democrats and Republicans for Washington to take a tougher stance on Beijing.
“There really is an unprecedented anti-China view in Congress,” she said. “We have never seen so many [critical] resolutions put forward. It’s rare to hear anything positive about what China is doing.”
Mr Trump last week said he would consider completely severing ties with China over Covid-19, although he did not provide any details.
In his four-page letter, Mr Trump outlined a series of what he said were failures by the WHO.
Mr Trump said the organisation had “consistently ignored credible reports” of the virus spreading in Wuhan in December and “failed to investigate credible reports that conflicted directly with the Chinese government’s official accounts”. The WHO has previously pushed back against the attacks from the US president.
The letter came on the same day that President Xi Jinping said China would donate $2 billion over two years to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.
John Ullyot, spokesman for the National Security Council, said China was using the offer to deflect blame.
“The Chinese Communist party’s commitment of $2bn is a token to distract from calls from a growing number of nations demanding accountability for the Chinese government’s failure . . . to tell the truth and warn the world of what was coming,” he said.
‘Transparency’
Mr Trump slammed Mr Tedros for praising China for its “transparency” after a meeting with Mr Xi in January. But Mr Trump also publicly lauded Beijing’s approach earlier in the year before pivoting to attack China as the death toll rose in the US.
Mr Trump said the WHO has praised the strict domestic travel restrictions that China imposed but was “inexplicably against” the US decision to bar most travel from China to the US.
“Your political gamesmanship on this issue was deadly,” Mr Trump wrote in his letter.
“It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world,” he added. “The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2020