Trump’s decision to defund WHO isn’t just petty or reactive – it literally plays into China’s hands. If the U.S. downgrades its participation in the WHO and other U.N. organizations, it will cede even more ground to the Chinese – which is what they want
Kristine Lee is an associate fellow in the Asia-Pacific Program at the Center for a New American Security.
It might be easy to dismiss this move as trademark Trumpian blame deflection or saber-rattling or shortsighted isolationism. But for people who’ve been watching China’s growing activism in the United Nations closely, the WHO’s deference to China is no surprise. In fact, it’s just the exposed tip of a dangerous iceberg — and Trump is careening straight toward it.
In this context, Trump’s decision to defund WHO isn’t just petty or reactive—it literally plays into China’s hands. If the U.S. downgrades its participation in the WHO and other U.N. organizations, it will cede even more ground, and influence, to the Chinese—which is what they want. China’s gambit to leverage Covid-19 to consolidate its international standing need not go unchallenged. Indeed, as the pandemic lays waste to all assumptions of how the U.N. should work, there might not be a better window of opportunity for Washington to double down on its commitment to a brand of global leadership that is committed to transparency, freedom and the protection of universal human rights.
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