World Health Organization Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is all praise for China. As number of coronavirus cases have gone down in Wuhan, Tedros has been frequent on Twitter praising the communist country for her 'brilliant' management of the pandemic.
On 20th March, a day when no confirmed cases were reported in China, Tedros had tweeted "For the first time, #China has reported no domestic #COVID19 cases yesterday. This is an amazing achievement, which gives us all reassurance that the #coronavirus can be beaten." Superficially this praise seems natural, as it was highly commendable if world's most populous country that was once the epicenter of COVID-19 pandemic, was inching back to normal. But this is not all. China's relationship with China is now under scanner.
First ever coronavirus case was reported in Wuhan, China in late November. Chinese authorities were well aware of the situation on ground but rejected it in front of the world. It was only when a Chinese doctor broke the news of the outbreak on social media, China accepted the presence of Novel Coronavirus.
Chinese authorities then forced the scientists who discovered the virus in December to destroy proof of the virus. The Chinese regime also punished doctors who tried to warn the public in the outbreak’s early stages and suppressed information about the virus online. A Chinese real estate mogul who criticized his government’s response has since gone missing.
No restrictions were placed on movement of the people in and out of China that led to the rapid spread of the disease to Europe particularly Italy and Americas. Approximately seven million people left Wuhan in January, spreading the virus all over China and all over the world, before China restricted travel to Wuhan finally on Jan. 22. Italy, China's biggest trade partner in Europe, having largest concentration of Chinese in Europe, and the only G7 nation to sign China's 'One Belt One Road (OBOR) project, too was given not an iota of information about the outbreak.
But Tedros was praising China’s “transparency” at the time when the communist regime covered and then concealed the severity of the spread. By January itself, Europe, America and Asia were having significant number of cases, but WHO didn't declare it as a pandemic even though it had met all criteria for the same.
The WHO even echoed China’s false narrative about the potential for human-to-human infection during the early stages of the outbreak. “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China,” the WHO tweeted on Jan 14. It was finally in March almost four months since the first reported case, that Tedros declared the outbreak as pandemic and also confirmed human-to-human infections. Tedros praised China’s disastrous handling of the pandemic as an example for the rest of the world to follow. “China is actually setting a new standard for outbreak response,” he said on Jan. 30, shortly after returning from a trip to Beijing.
When nations across the world were considering lockdowns to contain the spread of the virus, Tedros said widespread travel bans and restrictions were not needed to stop the outbreak and could “have the effect of increasing fear and stigma, with little public health benefit.”
China's influence on WHO proved even more real, when the world agency took no efforts to provide medical assistance in Taiwan - which China claims as her own. Due to Chinese objection, WHO hasn't even accepted Taiwan as its member. The world agency echoed the Chinese in claiming that Taiwan doesn't needs any assistance as the outbreak is under control in the island country.
It is worth mentioning here that Tedros was elected to the position of WHO Chief with massive support from China. China worked tirelessly behind the scenes to help Tedros defeat the United Kingdom candidate David Nabarro. Tedros’s victory was also a victory for Beijing, whose leader Xi Jinping has made public his goal of flexing China’s muscle in the world. Tedros comes from Ethiopia, the African country largely dependent on China. Beijing has shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars for mega-projects including a new $160 million national sports stadium in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's largest city and capital. China is also Ethiopia's largest trading partner.
But lately, China hasn't been happy with its investments in Ethiopia after projects like the railway line failed to generate the kind of cash developers had hoped. If China pulls out of Ethiopia, the African country's economy could crumble -- something Tedros is desperate to avoid. The conflict of interest puts him and his actions as head of the WHO under a microscope.
With around 34000 deaths and close to 8 lakhs confirmed cases, World is currently paying the price of this relationship
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