Donald Trump says US is 'terminating' relationship with WHO over coronavirus response

US President Donald Trump said Friday that U.S. will be terminating its relationship with World Health Organization, saying it h failed to equately respond to coronavirus because China has “total control” over global organization.

He said Chinese officials “igred” ir reporting obligations to WHO and pressured WHO to misle world when virus was first discovered.

He ted that U.S. contributes about $450 million to world body while China provides about $40 million.

U.S. is largest source of financial support to WHO and its exit is expected to significantly weaken organization. Trump said U.S. would be “redirecting” money to “or worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs,” without providing specifics.

Trump ministration may soon expel thousands of Chinese gruate students enrolled at U.S. universities and impose or sanctions against Chinese officials in latest signs of tensions between Washington and Beijing that are raging over tre, coronavirus pandemic, human rights and status of Hong Kong.

President Donald Trump said he would make an anuncement about China on Friday, and ministration officials said he is considering a months-old proposal to revoke visas of students affiliated with educational institutions in China linked to People’s Liberation Army or Chinese intelligence.

Trump is also weighing targeted travel and financial sanctions against Chinese officials for actions in Hong Kong, according to officials, who were t authorized to discuss matter publicly and spoke on condition of anymity.

“We’ll be anuncing what we’re doing tomorrow with respect to China and we are t happy with China,” Trump told reporters at an unrelated event Thursday, referring mainly to COVID-19. “We are t happy with what’s happened. All over world people are suffering, 186 countries. All over world, y’re suffering. We’re t happy.”

Although student expulsions aren’t directly related to Hong Kong and China’s move to assert full control over former British territory, potential sanctions against officials involved in that effort would be a result of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s determination that Hong Kong can longer be considered automous from mainland China.

Pompeo tified Congress on Wednesday that Hong Kong is longer deserving of preferential tre and commercial status it has enjoyed from U.S. since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. Under a joint Si-British agreement on handover, Hong Kong was to be governed differently than mainland for 50 years under a “one country, two systems” policy.

Pompeo’s determination opened door to possible sanctions and loss of special perks Hong Kong has received from United States. But neir Pompeo r or officials were able Wednesday to describe what action ministration might take, uncertainty related to impact that such sanctions would have on U.S. companies that operate in Hong Kong and city’s position as Asia’s major financial hub. Trump’s comments sparked a drop in U.S. financial markets.

Serious consideration of visa revocation proposal, first reported by New York Times, has faced opposition from U.S. universities and scientific organizations who depend on tuition fees paid by Chinese students to offset or costs. In dition, those institutions fear possible reciprocal action from Beijing that could limit ir students’ and educators’ access to China.

In a d to those concerns, officials said any restrictions would be narrowly tailored to affect only students who present a significant risk of engaging in espion or intellectual property ft. officials could t say how many people could ultimately be expelled, although y said it would be only a fraction of Chinese students in country.

Still, possibility that proposal may be implemented has drawn concerns from educators.

“We’re very worried about how broly this will be applied, and we’re concerned it could send a mess that we longer welcome talented students and scholars from around globe,” said Sarah Spreitzer, director of government relations at American Council on Education.

“We don’t have a lot of details about how y are going to define ties to Chinese universities, what of universities are y going to target, what would constitute a university having ties to Chinese military,” she said. If situation were reversed and ar nation imposed limits on students from U.S. universities that receive Defense Department funding, she ted it would affect a wide range of schools.

U.S. hosted 133,396 gruate students from China in 2018-19 acemic year, and y me up 36.1% of all international gruate students, according to Institute of International Education. Overall, re were 369,548 students from China, accounting for 33.7% of international students who contributed nearly $15 billion to U.S. ecomy in 2018.

proposal to revoke visas is t directly related to dispute over Hong Kong, r is it tied to U.S. criticism of China for its handling of coronavirus outbreak. Rar, it is connected to various elements of tre and human rights issues that have seen U.S. officials complain about Chinese industrial espion and spying and harassment of dissidents and religious and ethnic mirities.

But timing of a potential anuncement could come at a time of increasingly heated rhetoric about imposition of national security laws on Hong Kong in violation of Si-British accord.

proposal first began to be discussed last year when ministration moved to require Chinese diplomats based in United States to report ir domestic U.S. travel and meetings with American scientists and acemics. At time, U.S. officials said it was a reciprocal measure to match restrictions that American diplomats face in China.

Those limits were followed by a requirement that Chinese state-run media in U.S. register as “foreign diplomatic missions” and report ir property holdings and employee rosters to government. That was, in turn, followed by limiting of number of visas for Chinese journalists allowed to work in United States.

China retaliated for visa limitations by expelling several reporters from U.S. media outlets, including Washington Post and New York Times.