China looks to grow its influence over WHO
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
China is becoming a top donor country to WHO after promising this month that it'll make a $500 million gift over five years to the group.
Why it matters: President Trump announced in January that he's pulling the United States out of WHO, leaving a power vacuum within the global health consortium that Beijing is trying to fill.
State of play: A Chinese official announced the financial pledge at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, last week, saying it would help fight the impact of "power politics" on global health security, Reuters reported.
- This is the first time the United States hasn't attended the assembly. Trump is ending U.S. participation in WHO largely because of how it handled the COVID-19 pandemic and charges that it's beholden to China.
- The executive order pulling the U.S. out of WHO also explicitly mentions that China pays significantly less to the organization.
Yes, but: China's donation works out to far less per year than the United States' $481 million contribution to WHO in fiscal year 2023.
- "I don't think China is going to be able to buy influence at WHO," said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown. "I just can't see that happening. And I think that its contribution will be short-term and marginal."
- It's not clear whether the funds would be earmarked for specific priorities, or if they include China's required WHO member-nation dues.
- A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. referred Axios to China's permanent mission to the United Nations at Geneva for questions. The mission did not immediately respond.
Zoom out: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on social media Tuesday that, together with Argentina, he was exploring an "alternative international health system based on gold-standard science and free from totalitarian impulses, corruption, and political control."
