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On May 29, US President Donald Trump made a shocking announcement, terminating the relationship with the World Health Organisation. Addressing the media from the White House lawn Trump said, “Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organisation and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving, urgent, noble public health needs.”
The US President alleged that the WHO had been pressured by China to cover-up the Coronavirus crisis when it first originated in China. Trump said, “Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organisation and pressured the World Health Organisation to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by the Chinese authorities.” He added, “China has total control over the World Health Organisation despite only paying USD 40 million per year, compared to what the United States has been paying which is approximately USD 450 million a year.”
Accusing China for the global crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump said, “The world is now suffering due to the maleficence of the Chinese government. China’s cover-up of the Wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world instigating a global pandemic that has cost more than one hundred thousand American lives and over a million lives worldwide.” Trump said, “The world needs answers from China. We must have transparency. Why is it that China shut off infected people from Wuhan to all other parts of China? It went nowhere else. I didn’t go to Beijing. It went nowhere else, but they allowed them to freely travel throughout the world including Europe and the United States.”
Trump also continued his tirade against China blaming it for the failure of the American economy. Trump said, “China’s pattern of misconduct is well known. For decades they have ripped off the United States like no one has ever done before. Hundreds of billions of dollars were lost dealing with China, especially over the years during the prior administration.” He added, “China raided our factories, offshored our jobs, gutted our industries, stole our intellectual property, and violated their commitments under the World Trade Organisation. To make matters worse, they are considered a developing nation, getting all sorts of benefits that others including the United States are not entitled to.”
But Trump did not stop at merely blaming China for the pandemic or economic collapse. He also accused them of industrial espionage and said, “Today I will issue a proclamation to better secure our universities’ vital research and to suspend the entry of certain foreign nationals from China who we have identified as potential security risks.”
This open targeting of China by a person holding an office as powerful as that of the President of the United States could have implications for not just international relations between US and China, and the economies of both countries, but could also pose a potential threat to Chinese Americans and people of Chinese or East Asian origin, living, working in or vising the United States who could now be accused of being spies!
Racial tensions are already high in the United States in wake of the killing of George Floyd, an African American man, by a Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis policeman, with protests, rioting and looting being reported from across the country. Already media persons including CNN’s reporter Omar Jiminez as well as his crew were arrested live on national television by the police while covering the unrest and protests in Minneapolis. Meanwhile, Wave 3 news reporter Kaitlin Rust and her camera person were shot at with rubber bullets, once again live on TV while covering the civil unrest in Louisville.
Meanwhile, officer Derek Chauvin, who was seen in a viral video pressing his knee on the neck of Floyd who was lying helplessly on the ground before he died, has now been arrested. His wife has also reportedly filed for divorce.