The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Thursday that China will donate $30 million to the World Health Organization to support its fight against the novel coronavirus.
“At this crucial moment, supporting WHO is supporting Multilateralism and Global Solidarity,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying tweeted Wednesday.
The donation is in addition to China’s $20 million donation to the WHO on March 11, Hua added.
Another Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, praised the WHO’s handling of the outbreak under the leadership of Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a press conference Thursday.
“Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, WHO, under the leadership of Director General Ghebreyesus, has actively fulfilled its responsibilities and upholds an objective, fair and scientific standpoint,” Shuang said. “It has played an important role in assisting countries to cope with the epidemic and promote international cooperation in the fight against epidemics.”
Shuang added that China’s $30 million donation reflects the Chinese government’s support and trust of the WHO. (RELATED: Top WHO Official Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Won Election With China’s Help. Now He’s Running Interference For China On Coronavirus)
A TV grab taken from a video released by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attending a virtual news briefing on COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) from the WHO headquarters in Geneva on April 6, 2020. (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)
The $50 million China has donated to the WHO over the past two months is more than double what the country owed to the organization in the 2018-2019 biennium. China’s assessment for that two-year period was $37.9 million, according to the WHO.
President Donald Trump announced earlier in April that America, which is the single largest donor to the WHO, would be cutting off funding for the organization, saying it contributed to China’s misinformation on the coronavirus pandemic.
The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2020
“The WHO’s reliance on China’s disclosures likely caused a twenty-fold increase in cases worldwide, and it may be much more than that,” Trump said April 14. “The WHO has not addressed a single one of these concerns nor provided a serious explanation that acknowledges its own mistakes, of which there are many.”
WHO chief Tedros advised Trump in early April to “refrain from politicizing” the coronavirus pandemic “if you don’t want many more body bags.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.