Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to provide $2 billion
in aid to help other countries that have been hit hard by the
coronavirus pandemic.
Xi made this proclamation on Monday while speaking via video
conference at the opening ceremony of the 73rd World Health
Assembly, an annual meeting of the World Health Organization’s
decision-making body.
The money will be provided over the next two years and will
especially go towards developing countries, said Xi.
During his address, Xi looked to strike a contrast between
himself and Donald Trump, speaking of global cooperation and
international solidarity while mourning those lives lost around the
world and calling for increased support for the WHO.
He also declared that once Chinese researchers finish a vaccine,
it will be made available for the “global public good.”
At the assembly, a draft resolution will be discussed which
calls for a review into the origin and spread of the
coronavirus.
While China has touted its own openness and transparency
regarding the oubreak, it has pushed back against any international
investigation into the virus’s origins. Just hours before the start
of the opening ceremony, the Chinese Foreign Ministry called the
draft resolution “premature.”
However, Xi himself struck a slightly different tone in his
speech, declaring that China agrees with the need for an
investigation but adding that it shouldn’t be conducted right
now.
“China supports the idea of a comprehensive review of the global
response to Covid-19 after it is brought under control, to sum up
our experience and address deficiencies,” he said. “This work
should be led by science and professionalism, led by the WHO and
conducted in an objective and impartial manner.”
Reacting to that the United States on Monday said China must pay
more than the $2 billion it committed to the World Health
Organization, calling the pledge a token to distract from what the
Trump administration claims was Beijing’s failure to properly alert
the world to the coronavirus outbreak.
China’s commitment “is a token to distract from calls from a
growing number of nations demanding accountability for the Chinese
government’s failure to meet its obligations … to tell the truth
and warn the world of what was coming,” White House National
Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to provide $2 billion
in aid to help other countries that have been hit hard by the
coronavirus pandemic.
Xi made this proclamation on Monday while speaking via video
conference at the opening ceremony of the 73rd World Health
Assembly, an annual meeting of the World Health Organization’s
decision-making body.
The money will be provided over the next two years and will
especially go towards developing countries, said Xi.
During his address, Xi looked to strike a contrast between
himself and Donald Trump, speaking of global cooperation and
international solidarity while mourning those lives lost around the
world and calling for increased support for the WHO.
He also declared that once Chinese researchers finish a vaccine,
it will be made available for the “global public good.”
At the assembly, a draft resolution will be discussed which
calls for a review into the origin and spread of the
coronavirus.
While China has touted its own openness and transparency
regarding the oubreak, it has pushed back against any international
investigation into the virus’s origins. Just hours before the start
of the opening ceremony, the Chinese Foreign Ministry called the
draft resolution “premature.”
However, Xi himself struck a slightly different tone in his
speech, declaring that China agrees with the need for an
investigation but adding that it shouldn’t be conducted right
now.
“China supports the idea of a comprehensive review of the global
response to Covid-19 after it is brought under control, to sum up
our experience and address deficiencies,” he said. “This work
should be led by science and professionalism, led by the WHO and
conducted in an objective and impartial manner.”
Reacting to that the United States on Monday said China must pay
more than the $2 billion it committed to the World Health
Organization, calling the pledge a token to distract from what the
Trump administration claims was Beijing’s failure to properly alert
the world to the coronavirus outbreak.
China’s commitment “is a token to distract from calls from a
growing number of nations demanding accountability for the Chinese
government’s failure to meet its obligations … to tell the truth
and warn the world of what was coming,” White House National
Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement.