Taiwans exclusion from this weeks annual meeting of the World Health Organizations governing body highlighted Chinas power grab of multilateral institutions. But with Beijings renewed commitment to the UN health agency and US President Donald Trumps funding cut, is an international probe likely to reveal the mishaps and cover-ups of the Covid-19 pandemic?
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In early April, as much of the world was under some form of Covid-19 lockdown, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) veered into uncharacteristically personal terrain during a video press conference.
The detour sparked a diplomatic dust-up, exposed the power machinations undermining the UN health agency and rekindled questions over how a viral outbreak in a central Chinese city spiraled into a global pandemic that has killed more than 310,000 people and brought the world to its knees.
Asked about the criticisms he faced from world leaders such as US President Donald Trump, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – or Tedros as hes widely known – replied that he was targeted with racist abuse and even death threats online.
“I can tell you of personal attacks that have been going on for more than two or three months, abuses or racist comments, calling me names; black or negro,” began the former Ethiopian health and foreign minister. But the WHOs first African director-general did not stop there. “This attack came from Taiwan,” he revealed. “I will be straight today. From Taiwan. Taiwan, the foreign ministry also, knew the campaign. They didnt disassociate themselves.”
The reaction from Taiwan was swift and damning: Taipei protested, looked into the allegations and traced the malicious posts to China-based email and social media accounts.
Chinas misinformation campaigns and aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomacy has come under international scrutiny during the Covid-19 crisis.
>> Read more on Unmasking Chinas mask diplomacy
But for Taiwan – a democratically self-governed island that has been a thorn in Chinas eastern side since 1950 – its nothing new.
The decades-old information warfare along the Taiwan Strait turned particularly virulent after the 2016 election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who opposes unification with the mainland. Beijing views the island with its 23 million-strong populace as a renegade province under its One-China principle and threatens military action against a separatist Taiwan.
Its a diplomatically fraught terrain that envoys, certainly former foreign ministers, typically handle with extreme care. But that was not the case with the WHO chief.
“Tedros didnt check his sources, he reacted to fake news. For someone with such a high level position, he should have been more careful. It was counterproductive, it was proved to have come from China – and when that was revealed, he didnt react to the news,” said Dorian Malovic, Asia editor of French daily La Croix, and author of several books on China, in an interview with FRANCE 24.
The faux pas exposed critical issues confronting a world mired in a Covid-19 blame game and reliant on multinational institutions to uncover the truth and ensure the future of global health security.
Since the crisis erupted, Tedros has not shied away from upbraiding countries for their inadequate responses. But China routinely receives high praise from the WHO chief for its “commitment to transparency” and for setting “a new standard” in public health.
Beijings failure to contain the disease within its borders, or at least limit its spread – unlike recent outbreaks such as Ebola, SARS or MERS – never merits censure.
WHO, what, where on Taiwan
The discrepancy was on display this week when Tedros failed to invite Taiwan to participate as an observer in one of the most important public health meetings of the post-War era.
Despite a US-led campaign that included several European and Asian regional powers calling for Taiwans inclusion, Taipei was not represented at the May 18-19 virtual assembly of the WHOs decision-making body, the World Health Association (WHA).
China, which considers democratically-ruled Taiwan its own with no right to attend international bodies as a sovereign state, objected to Taipeis participation unless it accepted it was part of China, which the Taiwanese government refused.
Taiwan has participated in the WHA in the past, including as an invited observer from 2009 to 2016, before tensions between Beijing and Taipei peaked in the aftermath of Tsais election.
While the WHA Rules of Procedure gives the WHO director-general the right to invite states “to send observers to sessions of the Health Assembly,” Tedros maintained Taiwan's participation could only be decided by member states with the consent of "the relevant government" – a reference to Beijing.
The semantic back-and-forth finally ended early Monday, when everyone agreed to kick the can down the road, and Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu announced his government had “accepted the suggestion from our allies and like-minded nations” to put the issue off until later this year.
A foregone conclusion with future implications
But it was a noteworthy exclusion because the tiny, contested island lies at the heart of issues that the international community agrees require investigations.
Taipei mounted one of the worlds best responses to the Covid-19 pandemic sparked, according to Asia experts, by its historic distrust of official information from Beijing. Taiwan also claims the WHO ignored an early warning it sent the UN health agency at the end of December 2019.
Its absence at the WHA virtual meeting effectively exposed the weaknesses of multilateral talk-fests that result in communiques with little or no teeth.
Taiwans exclusion from the May 18-19 meeting was “a foregone conclusion", according to J. Michael Cole, Taipei-based senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a Canadian think tank. “Beijing resents the positive attention Taiwan has been receiving amid Covid-19, and it was clear that it would use its influence upon the WHO to ensure that Taiwan did not receive an invitation to participate as an observer. The failure of a group of influential democracies that had called for Taiwan's inclusion is a clear sign that the current structure of the WHO and the UN in general is failing to meet current realities. As long as structural problems are not addressed, and as long as China's influence isn't reduced accordingly, we will continue to see this kind of unhealthy politicisation,” said Cole in an interview with FRANCE 24.
Jockeying for top UN jobs
Chinas muscling in on the UN system has sparked warnings over Beijing blocking activists on human rights forums and advancing its signature Belt and Roads project over other initiatives.
“Through neglect and lack of leadership among Western democracies, authoritarian China has accumulated undue influence at the UN Human Rights Council, the Economic and Social Council and the UN General Assembly, where it has used 'bloc voting' among member states to further its antidemocratic agenda,” wrote Cole in a post on the Macdonald-Laurier Institute website.
The power grab gets personified during races for the top jobs in the UNs specialised agencies, such as the WHO. Chinese nationals today head four of the UNs 15 specialised agencies: the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Telecommunication Union and the UN Industrial Development Organization.
In the FAO leadership race, the EU united behind a French candidate, but failed to sway the Trump administration from supporting a Georgian contender despite news reports questioning the latters suitability for the post. In the end, the Chinese candidate was elected with a thumping majority following media reports that Beijing canceled Cameroons $78 million debt in exchange for the withdrawal of a Cameroonian candidate from the race.
Victory for Africa – and China
Back in May 2017, when Tedros was elected WHO chief, becoming the first African to lead the organisation, it was hailed as a “victory for Africa”.
A member of the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), a Marxist-Leninism liberation movement, Tedros is an epidemiologist who trained in the UK before returning home to serve as Ethiopias health and later foreign minister. His experience in tackling malaria made him an ideal candidate for the WHO top job.
But it was not without controversy.
The leading candidates in the WHO leadership race was Tedros and veteran British public health expert, David Nabarro. But when Ethiopias track record of covering up cholera outbreaks – including under Tedross tenure as health minister – came up for scrutiny, supporters of the Ethiopian candidate slammed the “colonial mindset” of his critics.
Lost in the post-colonial slam-fest was Beijings vested interest in the race particularly after former WHO chief, Norwegian politician Gro Harlem Brundtland, criticised China for endangering global health by attempting to cover up the 2003 SARS outbreak.
“Tedros was Beijings favourite. Prior to his election, he indicated he would abide by the so-called 'One-China principle' and he was viewed as more amenable to Beijing's position onTaiwan than his British rival,” noted Cole.
With the Covid-19 pandemic and a likely focus on vaccine patents and distribution rights, the US managed to forge partnerships with Asian and European democracies to prevent China from exerting undue control over the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Chinas candidate eventually lost to Singapores Daren Tang, in early March.
Responding to the US-led campaign for the WIPO post, Beijing slammed the “ugly” interference of the US “hegemon”.
Great leap backward
While there is little doubt that the US, as a superpower, has dominated the post-war global order, experts say the democratic system, including a free and critical press, offers the most effective checks and balances.
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