China defends handling of pandemic, backs review of global response under WHO

Geneva

CHINA'S president called on Monday for an independent review of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic under the World Health Organization (WHO) once the virus is under control, and defended Beijing's own handling of the pandemic.

In a video message to a virtual meeting of the WHO's decision-making body, the World Health Assembly, President Xi Jinping also pledged US$2 billion over two years to help with the Covid-19 response.

During the two-day meeting, health ministers from around the world are expected to back calls for an independent evaluation of the WHO's performance, criticism of which has been led by US President Donald Trump.

The meeting could also be dominated by tension between China and the United States, which fiercely criticised Beijing's response in the early stages of the pandemic.

Calling the pandemic "the most serious global public health emergency since the end of World War II", Mr Xi assured the WHO that "all along we have acted with openness and transparency and responsibility".

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He added: "We have turned the tide on the virus."

Mr Xi also said that China will make its coronavirus vaccine a global public good once one is available.

"Covid-19 vaccine development and deployment in China, when available, will be made a global public good, which will be China's contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries," Mr Xi said.

Among the dozens of vaccine projects under way worldwide, China has five candidates already in human trials. More will be approved next month.

The World Health Assembly is expected to discuss a resolution being presented by the European Union (EU) that calls for an independent evaluation of the WHO's performance under its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Names on a draft resolution seen by Reuters showed support from 116 of the 194 countries in the WHO.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the WHO "irreplaceable" and said that it needed greater resources to provide support for developing countries.

Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga pledged her country's "full support and cooperation" to Mr Tedros as the WHO coordinates the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 300,000 people worldwide.

The WHO and most experts say that the virus is believed to have emerged in a market selling wildlife in the central city of Wuhan late last year. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this month that there is "a significant amount of evidence" the virus came from a laboratory in Wuhan, a charge China rejects.

Another resolution pushed by the EU and Australia calling for a review into the origins and spread of the novel coronavirus has the support of 116 countries at the World Health Assembly, almost enough for it to pass, a document showed.

The resolution on the coronavirus will be put forward on Tuesday if it gains backing from two-thirds of the 194 members of the assembly, the governing body of the WHO.

China has strongly opposed calls for an international investigation into the pandemic but appeared more amenable to the resolution on Monday.

A copy of the draft resolution seen by Reuters on Monday showed support from 116 members was locked in, although Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said that negotiations were going on and she did not want to pre-empt the outcome.

The resolution was "an important part of the conversation we started, and I am very grateful to the efforts of those in the European Union and those many drafters who have been part of the negotiations for the past few weeks", Ms Payne told reporters.

The resolution was comprehensive and included a call for "an examination of the zoonotic origins of the coronavirus", she said.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman played down Australia's involvement in the resolution, attributing it solely to the EU, and said that China was consulted on the content of the draft.

"China, along with other countries, took an active part in these consultations and agreed on the unifying of the text," the ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, told a regular briefing in Beijing, though he stopped short of saying that China supported the measure.

More than 4.64 million people are reported to have been infected around the world with the coronavirus that emerged in central China late last year. More than 310,000 have died.

Australia - which has reported only 99 deaths - says that it wants to prevent a repeat of the pandemic that has paralysed economic activity around the world and is not looking to cast blame. "I hope that China will participate," Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said on Monday as he welcomed building support for an inquiry.

Among the co-sponsors of the resolution are India, Japan, South Korea, an African group of 47 member countries, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Britain and Canada.

The resolution calls for "scientific and collaborative field missions" to trace the path of transmission, saying this would reduce the risk of similar events. REUTERS