The director-general of the WHO, Dr Tedros has been the subject of intense scrutiny as world leaders are finally waking up to the role played by the WHO in aiding and abetting the pandemic. Instead of showing repentance, armed with Chinese money, Dr Tedros is now brazening out his collusion with the Chinese Communist Party which has wreaked havoc around the globe.
If Dr Tedros had even an iota of emotion, he would have publicly apologised for his act which has caused millions of infections and thousands of death with the normal routine of billions of people, uprooted. However, armed with the backing of the Chinese Communist Party, Dr Tedros seems to have lost his conscience and is brazening out his act.
When Dr Tedros was asked about US President Donald Trump’s stinging criticism of the WHO’s role as Trump effectively stopped American funding to the UN body, he said, “Personally, I don’t mind. I prefer to really focus on saving lives. I said it many times: we’re losing people. Why would I care about being attacked when people are dying?”.
Dr Tedros cleverly attempts to play the “bigger person” narrative. Dr Tedros carefully tiptoed away from Trump’s allegations that the WHO knew about the impending disaster but chose not to inform the world. Dr Tedros didn’t utter a single word on why did he castigate the USA for placing a travel ban on China as early as January despite the fact that back then despite mounting evidence, the WHO denied any possibility of human-to-human transmission and slammed the countries like the USA and India who were restricting travel from China. The WHO even claimed that there is no need for screening on airports as it is a futile and expensive exercise!
Dr. Tedros clearly wasn’t and isn’t focused on saving lives and the only thing he and the WHO cares about saving is the Chinese narrative on the pandemic.
In recent history, no country has been subject to complete ignorance as much as Taiwan as the nation was effectively left alone in its battle against the virus.
Around the globe, the world is recognising Taiwan’s successful efforts in containing the virus as Taiwan has stepped up the offensive against the WHO. Taiwan was clearly hard done by as the WHO was busy playing Beijing’s political games.
Dr Tedros has now resorted to playing the minority card as his last straw of defence as he increasingly finds himself cornered. Dr Tedros instead of lauding Taiwan for perhaps being the only country yet to have successfully won the battle against the Wuhan virus, has instead slammed the country for targeting him,
“I can tell you personal attacks that have been going on for more than two, three months. Abuses, or racist comments, giving me names, black or Negro. I’m proud of being black, proud of being Negro. I don’t care, to be honest … even death threats. I don’t give a damn.” He further added, “Three months ago, this attack came from Taiwan. We need to be honest. I will be straight today. From Taiwan,” he said. “And Taiwan, the Foreign Ministry also, they know the campaign. They didn’t disassociate themselves. They even started criticizing me in the middle of all that insult and slur, but I didn’t care.”
Dr Tedros didn’t utter a word against the continual absence of Taiwan from the WHO’s meetings or why is the WHO not sharing the date shared by Taiwan to its member states and why is the WHO calling Taiwan a part of China because except in the wildest dreams of Xi Jinping, there is no alternate reality where Taiwan is ruled by the Chinese Communist party. Defenceless and rudderless, Dr Tedros has resorted to playing the minority card.
The WHO’s treatment of Taiwan is unbecoming of an international organisation and in hindsight, had the WHO heeded to Taiwan’s desperate warning, the world would have been a much better place right now.
But the WHO ignored the warning perhaps because China claims Taiwan to be a part of its territory while in reality, the Chinese Communist Party rules only the Mainland China. Paying heed to Taiwan’s warnings would have meant the WHO recognising the global status of Taiwan something which Xi Jinping wouldn’t have liked. Hence, the desperate warnings of Taiwan and Dr Wenliang were paid no heed by the WHO.
To put things into perspective, Taiwan was the first country to act against the threat of the Wuhan virus as around 60,000 flights carrying 10 million passengers travel between Taiwan and China every year. However, the WHO decided to play Beijing’s political games as it excluded the country from the emergency meetings of the WHO on how to tackle the Wuhan virus.
Since 2016, Taiwan hasn’t been allowed to participate at the annual World Health Assembly and WHO technical and experts’ meetings — which is a sign of the sway that China has over the WHO.
Much to the glee of Xi Jinping, the WHO continues to address Taiwan as “Chinese Taipei” and all the cases of the Wuhan virus released by the Taiwanese authorities are shockingly placed under China despite the fact that the Xi Jinping government has no jurisdiction over Taiwan.
It is important to note that, Taiwan has been ranked as no.1 for two consecutive years in the Health Care Index and the nation’s participation in the WHO meetings would have certainly helped the world.
What’s more appalling is the fact that on February 28, the WHO listed Taiwan as “very high risk” at a time when the country had only 34 confirmed cases of the Wuhan virus. This had a devastating impact on Taiwan as countries like Italy, Philippines and Vietnam restricted the flights to and fro from Taiwan and also the entry of Taiwanese nationals.
In what reveals the extent of Chinese intrusion and influence in the WHO, Bruce Aylward who is the assistant director-general of the WHO when asked about by a RTHK journalist if the WHO would reconsider Taiwan’s membership, initially pretended that he hasn’t heard the question. When the journalist again attempted to ask the question but Aylward was quick to dismiss it and asked her to move to the next question. But the journalist didn’t budge and again sought to ask about Taiwan, Aylward abruptly ended the video interview.
The journalist then proceeded to call him again and asked Aylward about his thoughts on how Taiwan has done to combat the virus. Shockingly, Aylward forgot his position at the WHO and started behaving as a spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party and exclaimed, “ Well, we have already talked about China and you know, when you look across all the different areas of China, they have all done quite a good job.
Recently, Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou claimed that ever since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the country has shared the information about its cases and prevention methods with the WHO, however the organisation never included in the WHO’s daily updated situation report. “Therefore, the health bodies of various countries cannot understand the current situation of Taiwan’s epidemic situation, preventive policies and border quarantine measures from the information provided by the WHO,” Ou said.
The Taiwanese government also slammed the WHO as it was kept out of the organisation during the outbreak which it claimed amounts to playing politics with Taiwanese lives. The country has earned admirers by successfully controlling the virus keeping the toll low thanks to its early detection and control methods.
Dr Tedros has further claimed that there is an urgent need to “quarantine COVID politics” as “life is passing every single minute unnecessarily because we couldn’t unite to fight this virus.” With this statement, irony indeed died a thousand deaths as it was Dr Tedros led WHO which played politics over the impending pandemic and catered to the whims and fancy of Xi Jinping. When Dr Tedros’s lies are caught he’s trying to act as the bigger person. Dr Tedros is no less culpable than Xi Jinping, as the combination has proven to be far more deadlier than the Wuhan virus.
After the world has collectively (minus China and Dr Tedros) rode out the pandemic, Dr Tedros must be tried as a war criminal. Dr Tedros’s punishment must be so severe that it should send shivers down the spine of anyone even thinking of colluding with the Chinese Communist Party and blind the world in the future.