China announces candidate for WHO chief

BEIJING (AFP) : China announced Thursday it had put forward a candidate to lead the World Health Organization — a move that could signal intent to expand its influence at the WHO after the United States quit, even though questions persist about Beijing’s transparency over the Covid-19 pandemic.

China has nominated maternity health expert Song Li for the top position at the UN agency, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a news briefing.

US President Donald Trump has long accused the WHO of being a “puppet of China”, in particular during the Covid-19 pandemic, and pulled the United States out of the WHO following his return to office in January 2025.

The first Covid cases were detected in Wuhan in China in late 2019 and Trump’s administration believes the virus leaked from a virology laboratory in Wuhan.

The global catastrophe killed an estimated 20 million people, according to the WHO, while shredding economies, crippling health systems and turning people’s lives upside-down.

The WHO’s Covid origin investigations have proved inconclusive, with all hypotheses still on the table.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has urged China to come forward with early viral sequences.

Tedros reaches the end of his second five-year term — the maximum — in August 2027.

The vacancy presents Beijing with an opportunity to step up, after the US withdrawal left China as the biggest contributor of WHO membership fees, ahead of Japan and Germany.

However, voluntary contributions still make up the organisation’s main source of funding, and China was far from the biggest overall contributor in the 2024-2025 biennium.

Weakened by the US withdrawal and other countries cutting foreign aid spending, the WHO was forced to undergo sweeping reforms last year.

Its budget was slashed by over 20 percent, with hundreds of jobs cut and programmes scaled back.

Tedros says the organisation has now completed its reprioritisation and is on a stable footing.

The WHO website presents Song as the head of the Department of Women and Child Health at China’s National Health Commission, with a career spanning 21 years.

However, Chinese media say she since took up a role at the All-China Women’s Federation, a Chinese Communist Party organisation, which lists her as its secretary.

Beijing’s nomination “demonstrates China’s firm support for multilateralism” and “will help the organisation play a more active role in enhancing the health and well-being of all humanity”, said Mao Ning.

China’s public announcement comes after the September 24 deadline for candidates.

The full list will be published by the WHO in early November. However, if the nominating country wishes, candidates may be announced before then on the WHO website.

In January, the WHO’s 34-member Executive Board will nominate up to three candidates to be submitted to the World Health Assembly of member states, which will choose a winner in May 2027.

Song is running against candidates proposed by Belgium, Botswana, Indonesia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Spain.

They include the WHO’s Europe director Hans Kluge and Eastern Mediterranean chief Hanan Balkhy.

If elected, Song would be the second Chinese national to lead the WHO after Margaret Chan, who headed the Geneva-based organisation between 2007 and 2017.

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