Coronavirus: Xi Jinping backs down on virus inquiry, pledges $3bn to recovery
China pledges $3bn to world’s COVID-19 response as he embraces independent inquiry championed by Australia.
China’s President Xi Jinping has pledged $US2bn ($3.1bn) to support the world’s COVID-19 response, committed to making a vaccine a “global public good” and — after weeks of opposition and threats of economic retaliation — embraced the independent inquiry into the virus that Australia had been championing.
Speaking over videolink at the beginning of the World Health Assembly meeting on Monday night, Mr Xi said China supported a “comprehensive evaluation” of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic after it had been brought under control, insisting that China had “always had an open, transparent and responsible attitude”.
The virus commitment — and China’s repositioning on the inquiry — came after more than 120 countries agreed to support an independent inquiry, the promotion of which by the Australian government has been sharply opposed by Beijing.
“After the research and development of China’s coronavirus vaccine is completed and it is put into use, it will be made a global public good,” Mr Xi said in a speech given after weeks of attacks by the Trump administration against the credibility of the WHO.
Mr Xi’s backdown on an inquiry into the origin of the coronavirus came as China on Monday night slapped tariffs on Australian barley farmers, a move seen as retaliation for the Morrison government’s proposing of the inquiry, which Beijing had said was “politically” motivated.
Barley industry leaders say the tariffs will wipe out their $600m foothold in China.
Earlier on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said “all parties have reached consensus on the text” of the coronavirus inquiry after criticising Australia over the past month for proposing it.
Mr Zhao also revealed China’s support for an inquiry by a team of experts from the WHO into the origins of the virus.
“The purpose is to reduce the risk of similar incidents in the future,” he said.
It was important to “find out the animal source of the virus”, Mr Zhao added.
China has five potential vaccines in clinical trials as countries race to find a way to stop the pathogen that has killed more than 315,000 people worldwide.
Over the past four weeks, Mr Xi’s administration tried to push back against an inquiry and seemed to endorse comments in China’s state media threatening economic retaliation against Australia for its championing of the inquiry.
At the same meeting, Australia will call for an investigation into the powers of the World Health Organisation and push for new pandemic inspection capabilities in its address to the World Health Assembly, which is set to pass a European resolution for a global inquiry into COVID-19.
Health Minister Greg Hunt is seeking protections against the global health threats from wet markets, with 121 of the 194 WHO member countries now lining up in support of a wide-reaching inquiry, prompted by Australia, into the body’s handling of the outbreak and the broader global response to the pandemic.
Last week, China resumed a threat to impose an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley — which is used to brew China’s most famous beer Tsingtao — and the following day halted much of Australia’s beef imports, citing technical reasons. Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has not spoken to his counterpart, Chinese Commerce Minister Zhong Shan, about the trade friction.
On Monday, China also conceded ground on animal wet markets, one of which is regarded as the likely source of the Wuhan outbreak, admitting that some were not tightly regulated. Mr Zhong admitted the standards were “not very high”. “Moving forward, we want to push for their standardisation with an improved environment, richer choice and improved quality,” he said.
In a two-minute video address to the World Health Assembly — the WHO’s key decision-making body — Mr Hunt said Australia recognised the suffering many countries were enduring.
“We stand in solidarity with our frontline health workers, and express our condolences to all the families of COVID-19 victims,” Mr Hunt said.
“Our steps towards suppressing COVID-19 were swift, and we acted decisively, containing our cases to approximately 7000.
“As a result, we are now therefore able to carefully ease some restrictions.
“But no single country or organisation can effectively respond to COVID-19 alone. We therefore thank the EU for its leadership, and are proud to co-sponsor the COVID-19 resolution.”
Mr Hunt was firm on the need for the WHO to be accountable for the slow response to the outbreak in Wuhan.
“We are pleased to have support for an impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation of the global response. We need to learn the lessons from this pandemic and ensure we have the strongest possible global health architecture, with an enhanced ability to prevent and respond to future outbreaks,” Mr Hunt said.
“This could include an examination of whether the WHO’s mandate and powers, including around inspection, need to be strengthened to ensure WHO members have timely access to critical data.
“And we need to protect against the global health threat posed by wildlife wet markets.
“Global efforts also need to prioritise finding a vaccine, and Australian researchers are playing a vital role in this.”
The address also includes a condition that no country or population could be excluded from the inquiry process, in a subtle reference to Australia’s long-held diplomatic position to recognise Taiwan as an observer member.
“It is essential that no populations or potential partners are excluded.”
“Australia will continue working with the global community to end this pandemic, and strengthen health systems to protect against future pandemics,” Mr Hunt said.
Last month, the WHO had appeared to support the reopening of China’s wet markets, prompting Scott Morrison to demand greater “transparency” from the UN body on the causes of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the WHO’s independent oversight mechanisms could be used to review its own problems on COVID-19.
“I think in what is a comprehensive resolution, you will see the review is specifically referred to as impartial, independent and comprehensive.
“They are three factors which we particularly have sought,” she said on Monday.
Senator Payne said WHO’s independent oversight advisory body “has the capacity to do some of this work”.
Additional reporting: Richard Ferguson
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