WHO, China to face scrutiny at upcoming global meeting

GROWING ACRIMONY European Union, Australia are set to play a key role in pushing for a probe into the virus’s origin

WASHINGTON: China and World Health Organization are expected to come under scrutiny over their handling of Covid-19 at this week’s meeting of the UN health agency’s governing body, the first since the pandemic stormed the globe.

While the US has launched a daily barrage of attacks on China, including the Trump administration’s claims that the virus escaped from a laboratory in the original epicentre city of Wuhan, the EU and Australia are set to play a key role pushing for a probe into the virus’s origin when the World Health Assembly - the WHO’S decision making body - gathers on Monday for its annual meeting in Geneva.

A Us-backed bloc is also pushing for Taiwan, whose handling of the virus has been a rare success story, to attend the meeting as an observer. The move - aimed at strengthening Taiwan’s official and unofficial diplomatic relationships - has angered China, which views the island as a province and has long sought to isolate it on the world stage.

The showdown reflects a broader geopolitical struggle pitting the US and its allies against China, whose authoritarian system has come under scrutiny in the wake of a pandemic that has killed about 300,000 people and devastated the global economy.

The US is “determined” to see Taiwan participate in the meetings as an observer, with an

American spokesperson at the US Mission in Geneva saying that lessons from Taipei on its successful experience fighting Covid-19 “would be of significant benefit to the rest of the world.”

The US had also suspended funding for the WHO, claiming it’s biased toward China, and even suggested establishment of an alternative body.

Despite all the noise, most analysts expect China to command support from a large swathe of the nearly 200 countries taking part in the assembly that need good relations with the world’s second-biggest economy to shore up domestic growth.

And any effort to replace the WHO is also unlikely to gain traction.

AFP A police officer sprays disinfectant on a woman in Kalutara before she boards a special bus organised by n Sri Lanka police to transport stranded citizens back to their hometown.