In light of its disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew that China controls the World Health Organization (WHO). Now we have confirmation that China also controls Biden’s political agenda. The days of President Trump effectively pressuring failed multilateral organizations for their politicization and outrageous ineffectiveness are unquestionably over. Legitimate U.S. disengagement, which has severely affected the WHO, is being reversed by the Biden administration, in accordance with the desire of the Chinese communists.
By hitting the target to dismantle Trump’s legacy, the Biden team is working hand-in-hand with Beijing to prevent much-needed corrective action. For example, the Democrats are stubbornly keeping WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in his post instead of sacking him immediately after the COVID-19 health crisis, but also after the revelation a few days ago of the WHO’s latest huge scandal.
A report by an independent commission found that twenty-one WHO workers sexually abused women and girls, between 2018 and 2020, while tackling the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some victims said they were made to drink alcohol, while others said they were forced to have sex by WHO staff who demanded sex in exchange for employment. The youngest victim was only 13 years old.
The victims were further “ambushed” in hospitals and forced to have abortions by their rapists. Holders of the U.N. special passport that provides diplomatic immunity, the criminal WHO staff members benefitted from this functional immunity, which means that they could not be prosecuted for anything they have done in the course of their work. There is no better way to promote impunity and to obstruct the course of justice.
WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited Congo 14 times during the outbreak, and repeatedly said he was personally responsible for the response and publicly praised one of the alleged rapists for his “heroic work.” Yet at a press conference, Tedros refused to say whether he was considering resigning. In fact, the opposite is true. He is still expected to be re-elected in the wake of this scandal, despite the total failure of the WHO leadership.
So, to summarize, who was the Director General of WHO during the period covering the acts of sexual aggression? It was the Communist Chinese’s best friend, the Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Who is accountable for this huge scandal? Again, it is Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ responsibility. Will Tedros be asked to leave because of this scandal? Of course not, because China has not decided so. And what does the U.S. government say about holding Tedros accountable? Nothing. It prefers to swallow its dignity and historical convictions and bow once again to Beijing.
That the Africans or France genuflect before China is normal, they are weak states. But for the great nation of America to do the same every time China whistles is a disgrace.
America’s reaction is similar to that of Kenya and Uganda. In other words, never dare to attack Tedros, the Chinese puppet, turn a blind eye and continue doing business as usual. Any notion of protecting moral values and ethical principles has been lost in Washington DC. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his colleagues at the State Department simply do not care about protecting the image of the United States as a fighter for what is right in this world. What matters most to them is maintaining good relations with China and avoiding confrontation with it over the WHO Director General.
This is the largest discovery of sexual abuse in a single U.N. initiative and U.S. President Biden has nothing to say when the WHO sends rapists to Africa to fight Ebola. Instead of demanding full accountability from the WHO leadership who knew about the rumors and reports, and yet took years to act on this issue, he has no objection to the fact that instead of fighting the disease, WHO international officials operating under the full responsibility of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, spent their time sexually assaulting and abusing girls and women. The scandal is enormous. President Biden’s reaction to it is pathetic.
In comparison, during President Trump’s tenure, four heads of UN agencies have been sacked for mismanagement, corruption and abuse of power:
– The former Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibe, stepped down six months before the expiration of his term because of defective leadership that tolerated a culture of harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying, and abuse of power.
– The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Pierre Krähenbühl, resigned after a scandal involving accusations of nepotism and abuses of authority. The investigation depicted an inner circle around Krähenbühl, accused of engaging in misconduct, nepotism, retaliation and other abuses of authority.
– The UN’s environment chief, Erik Solheim, got sacked following severe criticism of his internal rule-breaking. The audit revealed that Solheim had no regard for abiding by the set regulations and rules.
– The UN biodiversity Chief, Cristiana Pasça Palmer, had to resign after leaked internal audit documents described a chaotic work environment at the Secretariat and allegations that Pasça Palmer discriminated against African staff members on the basis of their race.
For much lesser faults, they have all been dismissed. Unlike the Trump administration, by adopting a conciliatory tactic toward China, the Biden State Department is playing into Beijing’s hands to prop up the U.N. at any cost. Yet no organization in the Western world would be able to survive the proven accusations of mismanagement, scandal and corruption that have plagued the U.N. for years.
Biden’s strategic mistakes will only strengthen China’s power over the WHO which started with the election Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, a Chinese physician, who served as the Director-General of the WHO for 2006–2017. Right after her two terms, and in order to preserve their full control over the organization, China supported the election in July 2017 of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
As they did during the pandemic outbreak at the WHO under Tedros, Chinese officials will continue to manipulate or withhold information at will and senior WHO officials will continue to lavish praise on China, eroding what remains of the U.N. agency’s credibility. With a Director General who owes his career to China, the world will always be duped.
House Foreign Affairs Lead Republican and China Task Force Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) shed light on this in June 2020. “Those who followed Tedros’ election at the WHO weren’t surprised at his actions. After all, it was the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), among others, who strongly advocated for him – after they invested $13.3 billion into Tedros’ home country of Ethiopia during his time as foreign minister,” Rep. McCaul wrote. “To put this in perspective, during the 2003 SARS outbreak, then-WHO Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland spoke publicly against the CCP for withholding information and lying to the world. Compare that to Tedros’ consistent glowing praise of the CCP during the COVID-19 outbreak – even though the WHO knew the CCP was withholding vital information. While there are some who want to give Tedros the benefit of the doubt regarding the CCP’s influence over his decisions, his incompetent management of the COVID-19 response should be enough for a swift dismissal.”
This statement captures well the grim picture. Tedros has never explained why his U.N agency waited until the third week of January 2020 to hold an emergency session, delayed declaring a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and was desperately slow to use the word “pandemic.” Tedros is therefore rightfully the target of critics over confusing and contradictory decisions during the coronavirus outbreak that caused the preventable deaths of thousands of victims.
Sensing the danger, Tedros calculated that he could sacrifice WHO’s credibility and his own reputation by pleasing China in exchange for its unreserved support. His plan worked and is still working today. Criticism of China’s domination of the WHO has been raging for months, to no avail. Even after the huge sex abuse scandal in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tedros is still the Director General of the WHO and President Biden calls him “my friend” instead of working to remove him from office and prosecute him.
Joe Biden’s decisions to re-engage with the WHO and now to support Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in the latest sex scandal are totally wrong. It is a strategic error that shows his political decision to leave without sanction the COVID-19 epidemiological disaster ignited by Communist China and its accomplices in the WHO, and now to leave without any sanction the head of the WHO responsible for those of his collaborators who perpetrated the rapes in Congo.
This confirms President Biden’s poor ability to assess political reality and influence the balance of power, and that is very bad news. What is even worse is that it also confirms his intention to pander to China in general. Finally, Joe Biden has shown the world his propensity to tolerate the humanly intolerable with a smile. China will certainly appreciate it.