China announces additional $30 million for WHO amid COVID-19 pandemic

China has announced an additional donation of $30 million on April 22 for World Health Organisation amid coronavirus outbreak. This comes after US halted its funds for the United Nations health agency after calling it “Chinese-centric” and accusing the organisation of delaying the global response to the pandemic. Earlier China had already announced the donation of $20 million and after the recent announcement by China's foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang, the total contribution from the Chinese government to WHO becomes $50 million. 

At the regular press briefing, according to reports, Shuang said that the funds will support the global fight against the outbreak of COVID-19 disease and ramp up the response of developing countries to the pandemic. Furthermore, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson added that the donation “reflects the support and trust” that government in the mainland and its citizens have for the UN health agency. 

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Trump slams WHO

Since criticism had mounted on US President Donald Trump for halting funds for the WHO amid pandemic, he took on Twitter to slam the UN health agency on April 17 for ignoring the alerts sent by Taiwan regarding the human-to-human transmission of the novel virus in the preliminary stage of the outbreak. Trump also questioned WHO for spreading “misleading, inaccurate” information about the coronavirus in January, February since it was discovered in Chian in December 2019. The US President also held WHO accountable for the delay in taking decisive action. 

US had previously accused the latter of being “China-centric”. However, Trump officially announced on April 14 (local time) that the country will halt funds to WHO and the American authorities will review the “mismanaging” of COVID-19 outbreak. While China urged the US to fulfil its obligations especially during the pandemic, Trump has said that “WHO failed in its basic duty and must be held accountable”.

According to international media reports, Trump claimed that US used to fund at least $400 - $500 million to the World Health Organisation, every year, whereas China roughly funded $40 million. Moreover, the US President also believes that the outbreak would have been contained in the early stages if WHO had urged China to be more transparent and sent medical experts to the mainland for assessment of the situation. 

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(With agency inputs)