WASHINGTON
(AP) — President Donald Trump has announced that he would withdraw
funding from the World Health Organization, end Hong Kong’s special
trade status and suspend visas of Chinese graduate students suspected of
conducting research on behalf of their government, escalating tensions
with China that have surged during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump has been expressing anger at the World Health Organization for weeks
over what he has portrayed as an inadequate response to the initial
outbreak of the coronavirus in China’s Wuhan province late last year.
The
president said in a White House announcement Friday that Chinese
officials “ignored” their reporting obligations to the WHO and pressured
the organization to mislead the public about an outbreak that has now
killed more than 100,000 Americans.
“We
have detailed the reforms that it must make and engaged with them
directly, but they have refused to act,” the president said. “Because
they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms, we
will be today terminating the relationship.”
The
U.S. is the largest source of financial support for the WHO, and its
exit is expected to significantly weaken the organization. Trump said
the U.S. would be “redirecting” the money to “other worldwide and
deserving urgent global public health needs,” without providing
specifics.
He noted that the U.S. contributes about $450 million to the world body while China provides about $40 million.(What the Hell?)
Congressional
Democrats said in April, when the president first proposed withholding
money from the WHO, that it would be illegal without approval from
Congress and that they would challenge it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on
Friday called the move “an act of extraordinary senselessness.”
Other
critics of the administration’s decision to cut funding called it
misguided, saying it would undermine an important institution that is
leading vaccine development efforts and drug trials to address the
COVID-19 outbreak.
“Severing
ties with the World Health Organization serves no logical purpose and
makes finding a way out of this public health crisis dramatically more
challenging,” said Dr. Patrice Harris, president of the American Medical
Association.
The
WHO declined to comment on the announcement. Officials of the U.N.
agency have not directly addressed a letter that Trump sent to the
general director on May 18 warning that he would make permanent a
temporary freeze on U.S. funding and reconsider U.S. membership unless
it committed to “major substantive improvements within the next 30
days.”
Republican
Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate health
committee, also warned that the president’s decision could interfere
with vaccine trials and international cooperation during future
outbreaks.
“Certainly
there needs to be a good, hard look at mistakes the World Health
Organization might have made in connection with coronavirus, but the
time to do that is after the crisis has been dealt with, not in the
middle of it,” said Alexander, echoing a point made by others, including
the head of the United Nations.
At
an event later Friday, Trump was asked about relations with China, and
he repeated his earlier suspicions about how the country managed to
apparently contain the virus in Wuhan while it spread to Europe and the
United States.
“Well, we’re certainly not happy with what happened with respect to China,” he told reporters.
Tensions over Hong Kong have increased over the past year as China has cracked down on protesters and sought to exert more control over the former British territory.
Trump
said the administration would begin eliminating the “full range” of
agreements that had given Hong Kong a relationship with the U.S. that
mainland China lacked, including exemptions from controls on certain
exports. He said the State Department would begin warning U.S. citizens
of the threat of surveillance and arrest when visiting the city.
“China has replaced its promised formula of one country, two systems, with one country, one system,” he said.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo notified Congress on Wednesday
that Hong Kong is no longer deserving of the preferential trade and
commercial status it has enjoyed from the U.S. since it reverted to
Chinese rule in 1997.
It’s
not yet clear what impact the decision will have on U.S. companies that
operate in Hong Kong or on the city’s position as Asia’s major
financial hub, or how China will react to the decision.
“The
downward spiral in the bilateral relationship has now reached lows not
seen since the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen massacre, and there is little
reason to expect things to get better soon,” said Dexter Tiff Roberts,
an Asia expert at the Atlantic Council, which publishes nonpartisan
policy analysis.
Rep.
Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who is a commissioner of the
Congressional Executive Commission on China, praised the decision on
Hong Kong as an overdue response to the government of President Xi
Jinping for human rights abuses, including against religious minorities
in the Xinjiang region.
“After
years of human rights admonishment and cheap rhetoric devoid of any
meaningful penalties, Xi has concluded that the West is all talk, no
action,” Smith said. “President Trump, however, is today beginning to
change that and is doing what previous presidents have failed to do.”
The
president also said the U.S. would be suspending entry of Chinese
graduate students who are suspected of taking part in an extensive
government campaign to acquire trade knowledge and academic research for
the country’s military and industrial development.
Allowing
their continued entry to the country would be “detrimental to the
interests of the United States,” Trump said in an order released after
the White House announcement.
Revocation
of the visas has faced opposition from U.S. universities and scientific
organizations that depend on tuition fees paid by Chinese students to
offset other costs and fear possible reciprocal action from Beijing that
could limit their access to China.
The president’s order includes an exemptions for students whose work was not expected to benefit the Chinese military.
China
seemed to signal in recent days that it was hoping to ease tensions.
Premier Li Keqiang told reporters on Thursday that both countries stood
to gain from cooperation and to lose from confrontation because their
economies have become so interconnected.
“We must use our wisdom to expand common interests and manage differences and disagreements,” Li said.
Still,
the country has insisted that its control of Hong Kong is an internal
matter, and it has disputed that it mishandled the response to the
virus.
___
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking in Washington and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.
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