US terminates relationship with WHO
President Trump has announced that the US would be terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization.
The announcement, which was made on Friday May 29, 2020, followed the accusations that WHO is pro-China and its poor way of handling coronavirus.
“Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs,” Trump said.
President Trump also announced a number of measures to be taken on China on ground of different misdeeds by China like trade, coronavirus, and its recent crackdown against on Hong Kong.
“The world is now suffering as a result of the misfeasance of the Chinese government,” Trump stated.
Last month, the US has announced it would stop funding the health body if it failed to put some essential reforms in place.
Being the top contributor to WHO with approximately $450 million a year, the US is not ready to take a chance with transparency issue it said the body is lacking.
The US has raised concern about how WHO officials’ praise China’s transparency in its response to the coronavirus, and how it has ignored warning over the possibility of the virus originating from Taiwan.
Similarly, WHO has believed and spread China’s claims that Covid-19 cannot be contracted from person-to-person.
“Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities.
“Countless lives have been taken and profound economic hardship has been inflicted across the globe,” Trump said.
The president further stated that certain policy exemptions and special treatment with Hong Kona would be eliminated “from our extradition treaty to our export controls on dual use technologies and more with few exceptions.”
Trump similarly stated that the US would revise State Department’s travel advisory for Hong Kong in order to reflect the increased danger of surveillance and punishment by the Chinese.
“The rest of the world was electrified by a sense of optimism that Hong Kong was a glimpse of China’s future,” he said,
“Not that Hong Kong would grow into a reflection of China’s past,” Trump stated.
