US Criticizes WHO and China Together... Xi Jinping Says "Sharing Information Generously"

US-China Clash at the World Health Assembly

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), is delivering a speech at the World Health Assembly (WHA) held via video conference. [Photo by Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The United States raised issues of China's responsibility for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and dissatisfaction with the World Health Organization (WHO) at the World Health Assembly (WHA). China emphasized its transparency and rebutted the U.S. claims.

According to Bloomberg News and others, Alex Azar, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, claimed in a speech at the 73rd World Health Assembly (WHA) held virtually on the 18th (local time) that COVID-19 became uncontrollable due to WHO's failure. The WHA is the highest decision-making body of the WHO.

Secretary Azar criticized, "We must be honest about one of the main reasons this outbreak became uncontrollable," adding, "There was a failure by this organization (WHO) to obtain the information the world needed, and this failure cost many lives."

Secretary Azar also raised the issue of China's responsibility. He emphasized, indirectly referring to China, that "At least one member state mocked its transparency obligations in a clear attempt to hide this outbreak," which brought tremendous sacrifices worldwide.

After his speech, in an interview with Fox News, Secretary Azar said he delivered an extremely serious message and warning through his WHA speech, stating, "They (WHO) need significant structural reform. They must be held accountable," and "There needs to be an independent investigation into them. Their actions toward China and China's actions must be on the table."

On the other hand, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who gave the keynote speech at the WHA before Secretary Azar, directly rebutted the U.S. criticism, saying that China shared COVID-19 information and epidemic prevention experience.

He claimed, "(China) announced the virus genome sequence information at the earliest possible time," and "(China) spared no effort in sharing epidemic prevention and treatment experiences with other countries."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.