#WHO director to give graduation speech at top Chinese university

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Tedros Adhanom, Director General of the World Health Organization (left) and Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi
Naohiko Hatta/Getty Images

The World Health Organization director-general whose alleged pro-China bias prompted President Trump to withdraw US funding is scheduled to deliver a graduation speech Sunday at a top Chinese university.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom will address graduates of the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, the Beijing school announced Monday. His remarks will be “online” and it’s unclear if he will travel.

Trump halted roughly $500 million in annual US contributions to the WHO in April, saying the United Nations body failed to vet Chinese misinformation about COVID-19, which emerged in Wuhan, China, late last year.

Trump later ended the US relationship with the WHO, which he said failed to warn the world about the coronavirus and instead repeated false Chinese claims that there was no proof of human-to-human transmission and then false Chinese data on the number of infections.

“China has total control over the World Health Organization,” Trump said in a Rose Garden speech in May. “We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds.”

Tedros, a former government official in Ethiopia, has faced much of the blame from US officials, who note that he praised China’s response, including its “transparency.”

The coronavirus has sickened more than 2 million Americans and killed more than 115,000. As a result of the pandemic, roughly a quarter of US workers filed for unemployment insurance payments.

Spokespeople for the WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.