When 73-year-old President Donald Trump said the World Health Organization [WHO] showed China-centric bias April 8, the world gasped, knowing that something went very wrong in the U.N.’s global health watchdog waiting so long before declaring a global pandemic March 11 in the coronavirus AKA SARS-2 or Covid-19 crisis. WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today he would not invite Taiwan to the next World Health Assembly [WHA] if any member of the body objected. China’s 66-year-old President Xi Jinping objected, knowing the long history with Taiwan in which China does not recognize the Island of Formosa’s independence. U.S. officials have unofficially recognized a two China policy, accepting Beijing, while, at the same time, recognizing Taiwan. Taiwan’s Gen. Chiang Kai-Shek was backed by the U.S. in the 1949 Maoist Communist Revolution.
Truman administration [April 4, 1945 to Jan. 20, 1953] backed Gen. Chiang Kai-Shek and his freedom fighters who fled mainland China to the Island of Formosa where they established a U.S.-style Chinese democracy. U.S. administrations since Prsident Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty March 3, 1965, vowing U.S. Defense of Taiwan in the event of Beijing’s invasion. When President Richard Nixon normalized relations with Communist China Feb. 28, 1972, it called into question the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty. President Jimmy Carter signed the Taiwan Relations Act, assuring continuing economic and cultural involvement with Taiwan, but ending the U.S. two-China policy. Carter, under duress from Beijing, signed the Taiwan Relations Act Jan. 1, 1979, guaranteeing for posterity that the U.S. recognized only one China in Beijing.
Tedros got his start July 1, 2017 as WHO’s Director-General with heavy lobbying from Chinese President Xi Jinping whose wife Peng Liyuan had a long involvement as a goodwill ambassador with the U.N.’s world health body. Over the years Tedros encouraged Xi to make major financial investments in his home country of Ethiopia. When Xi needed a favor to keep the Wuhan coronvirus epidemic quiet for months, fearing it would damage the Chinese economy, Tedros obliged his good friend Xi. Keeping Xi’s secret from four months unleashed China’s SARS CoV-2 plague on the world, causing 4,256,022 case and 287,332 deaths today. Had Tedros done his job protecting U.N-member states, he would have notified the world in December 2019, urging countries to lock down their borders to prevent the spread of the deadly coronvirus.
Trump wasn’t kidding when he said April 8 that WHO was China-centric. Tedros was so beholden to Xi he didn’t declare a global pandemic until March 11. U.S. President Donald Trump figured out what was happening, banning Chinese flights Jan. 31. Three days later, Tedros held a press conference in Geneva, criticizing the U.S. Feb. 3 for interfering with China’s “trade and travel.” Tedros insisted Jan. 14 that there was no “human-to-human” transmission in Wuhan, when he knew China was dealing with a highly contagious coronavirus epidemic. Tedros had no problem covering for China and no problem today locking Taiwan out of any participation in the World Health Assembly. “To put it crisply, director-general only extent invitations when it’s clear that member-states support doing so, that director-generals have a mandate, a basis to do so,” said WHO’s chief legal adviser Steven Solomon.
Owing his job to Xi, Tedros wouldn’t do anything to rock the boat with China, certainly not invite Taiwan to WHO’s WHA. “Today however, the situation is not the same. Instead of clear support, there are divergent views among member-states and no basis therefore—no mandate—from the DG to extend and invitation.” Solomon said. WHO under Tedros wants no part of Taiwan if it antagonizes WHO’s relationship with China. Trump announced April 15 that he was pulling U.S. funding from WHO, pending an investigation about China’s role in unleashing the deadly coronavirus. China had been involved in a pitched propaganda battle with the White House, denying that the SARS CoV-2 virus leaked from Wuhan’s Institute of Virology. China has called the charge preposterous, enlisting a variety of scientists and foreign press to call Trump’s charges a “conspiracy theory.”
Tedros has zero sympathy for Taiwan after it accused Tedros of ignoring its warnings of “human-to-human” transmission back in December 2019. Tedros accused Taiwan of “racist attacks,” something Taiwan denied as “unprovoked and untrue.” Tedros tweeted Jan. 14 that, “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.” Taiwan, like the U.S., recognized that Tedros dropped the ball in informing U.N.-member states about the spiraling coronavirus epidemic in Wuhan, China. China’s Vice Foreign Minister Li Yucheng confirmed April 29 that Wuhan was locked down Jan. 23, proving that human-to-human transmission was happening four months before Tedros declared a global pandemic March 11. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo roiled Tedros urging him to let Taiwan go to WHO’s World Health Assembly.
