Connect with us

China

WHO Officials Reject Trump’s ‘China-Centric’ Claim

Published

on

who

Senior Officials leading the World Health Organization’s response to the coronavirus pandemic responded Wednesday to President Donald Trump, who threatened Tuesday to pause funding to the organization claiming it’s “China-centric.”

“We are still in the acute phase of a pandemic so now is not the time to cut back on funding,” Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Europe’s Regional Director told reporters Wednesday.

During Tuesday’s White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing, President Trump criticized the WHO for not warning the world about the virus early on saying they “could have called it months earlier.” Notably, Trump instituted a travel ban on China on January 31, which the WHO called unnecessary.

The U.S. is the number one contributor to the WHO. In fact, the U.S. provided nearly 15 percent of the WHO’s budget between 2018 and 2019.

“It was absolutely critical in the early part of this outbreak to have full access to everything possible, to get on the ground and work with the Chinese to understand this.” Dr Bruce Aylward, Senior Advisor to the Director General, said during the Wednesday meeting, “This is what we did with every other hard-hit country like Spain and had nothing to do with China specifically.”

Dr. Aylward led the WHO trip to China in February and commended the country’s “very hard” work in containing the virus, according to Reuters.

“China worked very, hard very early on, once it understood what it was dealing with, to try and identify and detect all potential cases to make sure that they got tested to trace all the close contacts and make sure they were quarantined so they actually knew where the virus was, where the risk was,” Aylward said.

He continued, “Then they made it very clear that these people would not and could not travel within the country, let alone internationally.”

You may like

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

China

Electric Vehicle company with Chinese ties awarded $500 million of taxpayer money for 2nd U.S. plant

Published

on

GettyImages 1238706937 scaled

With a little help from their Democrat friends, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery company with ties to the Chinese Communist Party just announced the opening of its second plant in the United States.

Fox News reports Gotion Inc., whose parent company Gotion High-Tech is based in Hefei, China, unveiled plans to build a $2 billion lithium battery plant in Manteno, Illinois, alongside Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who cheered the project.

The announcement comes amid growing opposition to the company’s plans to build a billion-dollar factory in Mecosta County, Michigan.

In order to make the expansion happen, lobbyists for the Chinese Communist Party-tied electric vehicle company funneled cash to Democrats. “Individuals at a law firm registered as foreign agents to lobby on behalf of Gotion, a Chinese electric vehicle battery company developing a controversial project in Michigan, and wired campaign contributions to several top Democrats” reports Fox News.

“According to state and federal filings, Monique Field-Foster, an attorney at the Lansing office of the Warner Norcross + Judd law firm who is acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Gotion, donated to the campaigns of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Whitmer’s sister Liz Gereghty and Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful Rep. Elissa Slotkin” the Fox News report continued.

“In partnership with the business community and the General Assembly, two years ago we set out to make Illinois a destination for electric vehicle and clean energy companies from across the globe,” Pritzker said in a statement.

“With the right incentives, nation-leading infrastructure, world-class workforce and booming clean energy production, we have transformed ourselves into an attractive location for global manufacturers. Today, we take another leap forward. It’s my pleasure to welcome Gotion to Illinois and to show the world yet again that Illinois is ready to be a player on the world stage.”

Pritzker delivered remarks late last week thanking Gotion for choosing Illinois to call “home” in a ceremony with leaders from Gotion High-Tech, including Li Zhen, the company’s chairman and president, who said he expected the factory to open in less than 12 months.

“All that we see here [in Illinois] are of enormous value to us: an enabling business environment, a supportive state government for the new energy industry and their highly efficient work, as well as the prospects of the State of Illinois in the coming years,” the Gotion president added. “We believe that Gotion’s battery technology will help to boost e-mobility in North America and the economic and trade exchanges between China and the U.S.”

You may like

Continue Reading

Trending