Beijing will replace the United States as the World Health Organisation’s top state donor, pledging $500m and expanding its influence as America retreats from international co-operation.
Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Guozhong told the World Health Assembly that his country was making the contribution to oppose “unilateralism”, a trait Beijing often ascribes to Washington as relations between the two powers deteriorate.
The US withdrawal from the organisation in January left Beijing as the most powerful member country, reports The Washington Post.
The pledge of $500m, which Liu said would be given over the next five years, is one of the clearest examples of Beijing’s efforts to step into a global leadership void left by Trump as he pursues his “America First” foreign policy.
At the assembly last Tuesday, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr called the WHO “moribund” and “mired in bureaucratic bloat”.
Zhao said he expected Beijing to play a bigger role in international cooperation when it comes to public health, as well as in climate change and the green-energy transition.
In contrast to Donald Trump, who has ordered the US to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, the landmark international treaty to reduce carbon emissions, Beijing has reaffirmed its commitment to the accord and stepped up investments in green-energy infrastructure in Southeast Asia and other regions.
Its increased participation in the WHO, compared with Washington’s withdrawal, may also help insulate it from long-running US criticism of China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, first detected in the city of Wuhan.
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