China’s president Xi Jinping has called for international supply chains to be kept open as the world struggles to rebound from “the most serious global public health emergency since the end of the second world war”.
Mr Xi promised $2bn over two years to help the worldwide response to the Covid-19 pandemic as he backed a “comprehensive review” into how the world had dealt with the emergency once it was “under control”.
“Global industrial and supply chains [should] be kept stable . . . if we are to restore growth to the economy of the world,” Mr Xi said at the opening of an annual meeting of World Health Organization members on Monday.
The Chinese leader sought to position Beijing as a responsible participant at the start of a gathering that is likely to expose serious tensions between countries. Washington and Beijing are in an increasingly bitter battle over the genesis and handling of the health emergency, while the EU and Australia have led a broader push for an investigation into the origins of the virus.
Mr Xi said any vaccine developed in China would be made a “global public good” — a response to widespread concerns that rich and powerful countries could gobble up supplies at the expense of poorer counterparts.
“This will be China’s contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries,” Mr Xi said.
He also supported the idea of suspending debt servicing for “the poorest countries”, in an initiative to be carried out jointly with other G20 countries.
Mr Xi insisted China had been transparent despite questions over how it dealt with and disclosed the initial coronavirus outbreak reported in the city of Wuhan late last year. He expressed support for a “comprehensive review of the global response to Covid-19, after it is brought under control”.
“This work should be based on science and professionalism, led by the WHO and conducted in an objective and impartial manner,” he said.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, announced a review of the international response to the pandemic, without giving a timescale, details or naming any countries.
“I will initiate an independent evaluation at the earliest appropriate moment,” which will focus on “experience gained and lessons learnt”, he said on Monday. He added that he was acting on a recommendation from the independent oversight committee of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme.
China has come under intense scrutiny for its role in the global spread of coronavirus this year, including American and Australian demands for an independent probe.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, underscored the international disarray with a stinging attack on the “hubris” of the international response to the pandemic.
“We’ve heard a lot of expressions about solidarity, but we haven’t seen very much unity in our response to Covid-19,” Mr Guterres said.
“Countries have implemented different strategies, sometimes contradictory strategies, and all of us are now paying the price for that. Many countries ignored the recommendations of the World Health Organization.”
In a report, the WHO’s oversight committee hit back at the “rising politicisation of pandemic response”, which it said was a “material impediment to defeating the virus”. It made a series of recommendations, including the independent review, and condemned threats that it said had been directed against WHO staff following public criticism of the organisation.
Source: Economy - ft.com
