UN COVID-19 meeting a stage for Chinese ‘propaganda’, US official says

A spokesperson for China’s mission to the United Nations in New York said the US “politicisation of the issue is not in the interest of the international community.”

Without naming the United States, the spokesperson said: “If certain a country insists, it will once again find itself isolated and end in failure. China will strengthen communication and collaboration with other member states and make positive and constructive contributions.”

US President Donald Trump cut funding to the World Health Organisation earlier this year and announced plans to quit the Geneva-based body over accusations it was a puppet of China, which the WHO denied. The US withdrawal would have taken effect in July next year, but US President-elect Joe Biden said he will rescind the move.

Trump administration officials said they expected Beijing to push a narrative at the United Nations this week that the virus existed abroad before it was discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan last year, a claim the WHO has called “highly speculative.”

Long-simmering tensions between the United States and China hit boiling point over the pandemic at the United Nations, spotlighting Beijing’s bid for greater multilateral influence in a challenge to Washington’s traditional leadership.

Azar will not attack China directly in his video statement, but took aim at what he called a lack of “necessary information sharing” about the outbreak, according to a text of his prepared remarks. “This dereliction of duty has been absolutely devastating for the entire globe,” Azar said.

China has denied the US assertions that a lack of transparency worsened the global outbreak.

The senior US official, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, underscored the severity of the pandemic: “I’m not going to call it a weapon of war, but we have to regard it as a serious threat. It is in fact the threat to international peace and security.”

Chinese scientists are carrying out research into the origins of the coronavirus and a WHO-led international team formed in September will develop plans for longer-term studies building on China’s findings.

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The US official also said it was “wholly unacceptable” that the WHO probe would not be completed for nearly a year.

Australia began calling for a review of the origins and handling of the coronavirus in April, which drew an immediate rebuke from China.

Britain has called for prioritising the investigation and ensuring its outcome is grounded in “robust science,” while Germany, speaking for the European Union, has called for “full transparency and cooperation” throughout the investigation.

The UN General Assembly agreed in October to hold the COVID-19 special session by adopting a resolution with 150 votes in favour. The United States, Israel and Armenia abstained and the remaining members didn’t vote. The meeting was proposed by the General Assembly president, Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir.

Bozkir’s spokesman Brenden Varma said the president thought that the meeting was “already too late” and should have happened in the summer. Varma added the meeting was created as a way to promote multilateralism in a time of crisis.

The point is “to bring countries together, along with UN actors, with the private sector, with vaccine developers to work together … to take stock and to identify gaps and challenges,” Varma said.

Reuters