[Genuine Realist]

Notable that during a debate Biden was pretty forceful about not trusting China and wanting to get more American observers on ground there. I don't recall his specific remarks but I was a bit struck by them because I thought that China was doing a pretty admirable job at the time fighting this while we still had our thumbs up our asses.

Really? It may look like that in terms of OUR knowledge at the time. In terms of what the CCP knew, or should have known, they were miles behind the curve.

They were still holding big folk festivals in mid February, at a point in time when Trump is now being criticized rightly or wrongly for not urging a shutdown. But the CCP was two months further along in the progress of the pandemic. The Party was still in denial to the world, applying cosmetics to the situation. Not good.

---

The WHO's treatment of Taiwan is shameful, and long term I have no issue throwing our (financial) weight around to get China to stop playing politics with the WHO.

https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/03/2...ganisation

Whatever you think of China and Taiwan, not including Taiwan in the WHO due to regional politics is stupid.

That being said, making the point in the midst of a pandemic is counterproductive.  The pandemic is going to hit developing nations hard, and we live in a global world where even if we get the infection under control in the US, developing nations will continue to be sources of infection. The time to play hardball with the WHO is probably not when we need to have a coordinated global response, because as flawed as the WHO is, especially with regards to Taiwan, not having the WHO around is worse.

BC

We can give direct aid to afflicted nations, which may be more efficient than using WHO.

[Genuine Realist]

Notable that during a debate Biden was pretty forceful about not trusting China and wanting to get more American observers on ground there. I don't recall his specific remarks but I was a bit struck by them because I thought that China was doing a pretty admirable job at the time fighting this while we still had our thumbs up our asses.

Really? It may look like that in terms of OUR knowledge at the time. In terms of what the CCP knew, or should have known, they were miles behind the curve.

They were still holding big folk festivals in mid February, at a point in time when Trump is now being criticized rightly or wrongly for not urging a shutdown. But the CCP was two months further along in the progress of the pandemic. The Party was still in denial to the world, applying cosmetics to the situation. Not good.

---

The WHO's treatment of Taiwan is shameful, and long term I have no issue throwing our (financial) weight around to get China to stop playing politics with the WHO.

https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/03/2...ganisation

Whatever you think of China and Taiwan, not including Taiwan in the WHO due to regional politics is stupid.

That being said, making the point in the midst of a pandemic is counterproductive.  The pandemic is going to hit developing nations hard, and we live in a global world where even if we get the infection under control in the US, developing nations will continue to be sources of infection. The time to play hardball with the WHO is probably not when we need to have a coordinated global response, because as flawed as the WHO is, especially with regards to Taiwan, not having the WHO around is worse.

BC

We can give direct aid to afflicted nations, which may be more efficient than using WHO.