Both under fire from US, China and WHO rally together after Wuhan death toll spiked by 50%

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday said that at the critical moment when the world is combating the Coronavirus pandemic, Chinese government and the people firmly support the World Health Organization (WHO) and that to support WHO and its director-general is to safeguard the philosophy and principle of multilateralism.

'Chinese govt supports the WHO'

He made the remarks when holding a phone conversation with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, noting that the support is also an act to secure the United Nations' status and role and maintain the international solidarity in the face of the disease.

China's support to the WHO comes at a time when the United States of America has been openly criticizing China and the WHO for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. This is also just a day after China hiked the Coronavirus death-toll from epicentre Wuhan.

America warns China of consequences

Donald Trump on Saturday warned China that it should face consequences if it was "knowingly responsible" for the spread of the novel coronavirus, upping the ante on Beijing over its handling of the global pandemic. Trump, who has expressed disappointment over China's handling of the deadly disease, alleged non-transparency and initial non-cooperation from Beijing with Washington on dealing with the crisis.

"If they were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences. You're talking about, you know, potentially lives like nobody's seen since 1917," he told reporters at a White House news conference. Trump said his relationship with China was very good till the time the deadly COVID-19 swept across the world.

Trump on Wednesday halted US funding to the WHO after alleging mismanaging the coronavirus crisis. Trump has blamed WHO's "very much sided" approach to China on Coronavirus crisis, asserting that many people are unhappy with the global health agency and feel that "it's been very unfair".

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Trump said, "Today I am instructing my administration to halt the funding of WHO while the review is conducted is assessing WHO's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the Coronavirus."

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