Donald Trump axes all funding to WHO after claiming 'China has total control'

Donald Trump has terminated the United States relationship with the World Health Organization after accusing it of helping China cover-up the coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking at the White House Friday, President Trump said an investigation into the UN-backed WHO’s alleged blunders in dealing with coronavirus had completed, and that a temporary suspension of US funding – which runs to up to $400 million a year – would now become permanent.

He said: ‘China has total control over the World Health Organization despite only paying $40million per year compared to what the United States is paying – approximately $400million a year.

‘We have detailed the reforms (the WHO) must make an engage with them directly.

‘They have refused to act. Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we will today be terminating our relationship with the WHO and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving global health needs.’

The world needs answers from China on the virus. We must have transparency. Why is is that China shut off all infected people from Wuhan to other parts of China?’

The president used the same press conference to severe diplomatic ties between the US and Hong Kong after accusing China of undermining the former British territory’s autonomy. He left afterwards without taking questions or offering further clarification on today’s announcements.

Trump went on to question how China had managed to stop coronavirus traveling to its capital city of Beijing

The country’s communist government is widely believed to have lied that it only saw 82,000 cases and 4,600 deaths for a population of 1.4billion people. Meanwhile, the United States – which has a population of 330 million people – has seen over 1.7million confirmed cases and 103,000 deaths.

Earlier in his speech, Trump launched another blistering attack on China – and wrongly claimed there had been one million Covid-19 deaths worldwide, instead of the reported 362,000.

He said: ‘The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government. China’s government cover up of the wuhan virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has cost more than 100,000 American lives and more than a million lives worldwide. ignored obligations to the WHO snd pressured the WHO to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities.’

In March, Trump hit out at the WHO over claims it had allowed China to get away with lying about the scale of the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. China has also been accused of deliberately withholding information about how transmissible the virus was between humans.

Earlier this month, German magazine Der Spiegel claimed Chinese President Xi Jinping had personally called WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom asking him to withhold information about human-to-human transmission of Covid-19. The magazine – which says its information came from the respected German intelligence services – claimed that set the global response to coronavirus back by four to six week.

WHO bosses subsequently issued a vehement denial of those allegations.

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