US finding alternative for WHO ‘impossible’
“Where does the US get the nerve to replace an international organization like the World Health Organization?” Chinese experts slammed US officials’ remarks on having a review of the WHO’s work amid the coronavirus pandemic and its attempt to find “an alternative” to carry out its work in public health.
Experts said that the unilateral move of the US serves nothing but to interrupt global efforts to contain COVID-19 pandemic without making any contribution, and the US should stop stirring up trouble.
Against the backdrop of more than 842,600 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported as of press time on Thursday in the US, some US officials insist on criticizing the WHO and China, including
John Barsa, head of the US Agency for
International Development and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
US officials and politicians’ baseless criticism against China and the WHO are still aimed at shifting the blame as the epidemic situation has become severer in the US while the US presidential election draws near, Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the Global Times on Thursday. He said that the plan to review the WHO’s work also shows the US’ long term arrogance – “I rule the world and whoever goes against me will be ‘investigated’ or ‘punished.’” Given Trump administration’s evident bias and mistrust of the WHO, the review on the WHO’s work concocted by the US has no objectivity or fairness, nor can it prove anything, Xin noted.
No longer influential
US unilateralism and an “America First” mentality has repeatedly damaged multilateralism that guaranteed international cooperation since the Trump administration took power, and if the US tries to withdraw from the WHO and establish a new US-led organization for global public health, the consequences would be horrific, said Lü Xiang, a research fellow on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing on Thursday.
“Because in the future, if any new pandemic occurs, whether in the US or in any other countries, the information sharing among certain countries may result in contradictory advice from different organizations, potentially confusing the world, and this would constitute a problem,” he noted.
Diao Daming, a US studies expert with the Renmin University of China in Beijing, said that the recent US move against the WHO is terrible and irresponsible. “Hopefully, no country would follow such horrible, stupid and self-deceiving behavior.”
“The US’ unilateral behavior in the past few years has already shown the world that we can’t rely on the US in any global crisis or challenge,” neither climate change nor nuclear proliferation, and also not the pandemic, and “if US leaders don’t want to help, that’s fine, but they should not create trouble for the world,” Diao said.
Experts also expressed concerns of US financial donations which may be given to the WHO to advance its own ideology and spread propaganda worldwide.
Jim Richardson, USAID’s director of foreign assistance, was quoted by Reuters as saying that “for ... every dollar flowing today, we’re just taking the WHO off the table and we are going to provide that assistance” to other groups.
USAID, the key US government agency that administers foreign aid, has long been criticized for supporting groups aligned with US interests and ideology. The US may leave room for Taiwan to join if it creates a US-led alternative for the WHO as the island has been working hard in recent days to slander the Chinese mainland and attack the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Chiu Yi, a former Kuomintang legislator in Taiwan, told the Global Times that the US has always treated Taiwan as a pawn to contain China.
“It will never declare Taiwan a country.” The US will leave some space to discuss whether Taiwan can enter the new organ designed for public health to stimulate Taiwan to work harder to cooperate with US interests, Chiu said.