▲ WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
As the election for the next WHO Director-General approaches, China plans to field a candidate and enter the race, Reuters reported on the 6th (local time), citing diplomatic sources in Geneva.
With the U.S. Trump administration withdrawing from the WHO last January, analysts suggest that China is aggressively targeting the U.S. vacuum to expand its influence in the international community.
Diplomatic sources stated that China plans to recommend Song Li, a senior Chinese public health official who has built expertise in maternal and child health policies and international cooperation for over two decades, as the next Director-General.
Song and the Chinese Permanent Mission in Geneva did not issue official responses to Reuters' requests for comment.
The WHO plans to release the final and complete list of candidates for the next Director-General in early November, following the conclusion of regional committee meetings.
Already, six countries—Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Qatar, Botswana, Indonesia, and Spain—have officially nominated candidates for the next Director-General.
With China joining, the total number of candidates will increase to seven.
If Song navigates the competitive race and is elected as the successor to current Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, she will become the second WHO Director-General of Chinese nationality, following Margaret Chan, a former chief from the special administrative region of Hong Kong.
One diplomatic source pointed out to Reuters that this is a clear signal of China seeking to fill the vacuum left by the U.S. in the international community.
With the United States, formerly the largest donor, officially withdrawing last January, the WHO faced a financial crisis that forced it to drastically scale back its budget and programs while cutting about a quarter of its total workforce.
At the time, the U.S. government cited as the reason for its withdrawal that the WHO pursued political and bureaucratic agendas led by countries hostile to the interests of the United States, its largest financial contributor.
The full-scale conflict between the Trump administration and the WHO dates back to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Trump administration expressed frustration that the WHO's delayed declaration of an initial public health emergency caused the world to waste time in responding to the virus spread, and openly complained that the WHO favored China while failing to properly handle COVID-19-related reporting and information sharing.
In addition, analysts note that the Trump administration, championing an America First doctrine, has stepped back from various other international organizations, and China is viewing this as an opportunity to expand its influence globally.
President Trump signed a presidential memorandum last January withdrawing the U.S. en masse from 31 UN-affiliated organizations, including the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as 35 non-UN organizations.
Reuters pointed out that while the U.S. Trump administration has reduced its engagement with the UN and its specialized agencies, the Chinese government has long sought to assume greater responsibilities in UN bodies and other multilateral forums.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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