China

U.S. Officially Withdraws From the World Health Organization

Published

3 years ago

July 7, 2020

The U.S. has officially submitted a notice of withdrawal from the World Health Organization — effective July 6, 2021 — to the UN Secretary-General, according to a senior administration official.

The Trump White House and the international health body have been at odds for months over the US-19 handling of COVID-19 and the WHO’s relationship with China.

The move comes months after Trump began calling out the organization for its ties to China — it took until last week for the WHO to admit they first heard of the virus in December from the US and that China never self-reported.

Trump wrote a letter to the WHO calling for it to show independence from China in May and discussed leaving the body all together for months if it didn’t make serious changes — it appears the revisions weren’t made in time.

The withdrawing period will take place over the next year with the US fully removed by July 6, 2021.

Related Topics:covid White House WHO world health organization

China

Biden to lift sanctions on China in exchange for third promise to combat fentanyl

Published

2 weeks ago

November 15, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

Reportedly President Joe Biden is making deals with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help improve anti-drug trafficking measures. China is one of the top fentanyl producers and distributors, culminating in a pandemic of fentanyl overdoses and deaths in the United States.

The Biden administration will be lifting sanctions on a Chinese government ministry, in exchange for bolstering anti-drug trafficking measures, Bloomberg reported. “We’re hoping to see some progress on that issue this coming week,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday, according to the New York Post. “That could then open the door to further cooperation on other issues where we aren’t just managing things, but we’re actually delivering tangible results.”

The Daily Caller News Foundation noted that should a deal materialize, it will be at least the third time that China has promised to get tough on fentanyl. In 2016, China agreed to increase counter-narcotics operations, and Xi again agreed to launch a crackdown in 2018. Nonetheless, China and Mexico are “the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the United States,” according to a 2020 DEA intelligence report.

“China remains the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail and express consignment operations environment, as well as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.”

President Joe Biden and Xi are meeting for the first time in over a year during this week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco. Sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will crack down on Chinese companies manufacturing chemical precursors for fentanyl in exchange for the U.S. lifting sanctions on the Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science, which the Commerce Department added to the Entity List in 2020 for “engaging in human rights violations and abuses” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.