China must pay $2bn WHO pledge – Trump

The United States on Monday said China must pay more than the two billion dollars it committed to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

It called the pledge a token to distract from what the Trump administration claims were Beijing’s failure to properly alert the world to the coronavirus outbreak.

“China’s commitment is a token to distract from calls from a growing number of nations demanding accountability for the Chinese government’s failure to meet its obligations”.

“To tell the truth and warn the world of what was coming,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement.

This comes a month after Trump withheld a $400 million aid to the global health institution, alleging that it was complicit in the spread of COVID-19 and covering up for China at the outset of the outbreak.

And the US leader isn’t backing down on his stand, as he insists on Monday that the withdrawal of funding to WHO may be permanent.

The United States is the epicentre of the Coronavirus outbreak in the world, with over 1.5 million confirmed cases and 90,000 deaths.