US President Donald Trump on Friday said that he will soon make an announcement on the World Health Organisation (WHO), which he alleged has become a puppet of China.
Trump has already suspended funding to the WHO, accusing it of being misguiding the world on the coronavirus and siding with China on this issue.
“I don’t believe it was done on purpose, but it was done through probably incompetence. It probably got out and they didn’t know how to talk about it,” Trump told Fox News in an interview.
Trump said that he wanted to go in and help the Chinese.
“They didn’t want us to go in. The World Health Organisation, as you know, we pay them almost USD 500 million a year. I’m going to be making an announcement on that soon because they are like a puppet for China. They’re a puppet for China. Everything China does is OK. They get USD 38 million from China,” Trump said.
“But they are a pipe organ for China. So I’m going to make a decision very soon. I held back all funds. We held back almost USD 500 million from them. I’ll make a decision, but think of it,” he said.
“We’re paying USD 450 million and China’s paying USD 38 million, and yet China tells them what to do. How does that work?” he asked.
Responding to a question, Trump said that he is having a very hard time with China.
“I made a great trade deal months before this whole thing happened and it was kicking in a month ago and starting to kick in and starting to produce and then this happens and it sort of overrides so much,” he said.
“I’ve been very tough in China over the years. I’ve been saying China’s been ripping us off at a level that nobody”s ever ripped us off before. I’ve been tough on other countries too because they all did. We’ve renegotiated a deal with Japan, we’re taking in USD 40 billion,” he said in response to a question.
The Trump administration is currently weighing punitive actions against China over its early handling of the global health emergency. Washington is also pressing Beijing to allow American experts to probe the origin of the deadly virus.
China has stoutly denied the allegations and says the US wants to distract from its own response to the pandemic ahead of the November presidential election in which Trump is seeking re-election.
