France attacks China’s late reporting on the Coronavirus outbreak in the country
(Katarina Agius Jager), 17:00, November 13th
WHO, November 13th – The delegation of the French Republic raised a motion to down China’s communication of the virus outbreak to the rest of the world.
The French Republic, has already shown, in previous sessions, its bias towards the People’s Republic of China which is shown in the significance of the moderated debate.
To China’s support, the Islamic Republic of Iran and The Russian Federation have stated that: “ how [the situation] has been handled so far is of no importance, solutions are what the focus should be put on”.
However, although the delegation of China acknowledges the defense from the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran on the part of emphasizing that we must not dwell on the past but look at the future, the delegation of China stressed that the country has been the most effective and the fastest country to have reported the outbreak of a pandemic in the world.
The People’s Republic of China reiterated that the first case of the virus had been reported one week after its detection, which is certainly not generalizable to countries like the French Republic who have taken months to even recognize the existence of a new pandemic.
Furthermore, the People’s Republic of China had been congratulated by the World Health Organization officials themselves, for its remarkably efficient control of the situation.
The Commonwealth of Australia and the Kingdom of Sweden have responded to the defense of the French Republic, with claims that the People’s Republic of China should be held accountable for its actions, to which a point regarding China as the only country to have completely reduced coronavirus inside its borders, had been later raised.
China has even received support from the delegation of the United States of America who expressed concern for the future, should all countries continue to live in the past and not in the present, as has been the case in the WHO so far.
The statement of the USA had been seconded by the Argentinian delegation who highlighted that the point of the gathering was the resolution of the pandemic and not the politicization of the issue.
The delegation of the Russian Federation had then brought up the point of changing the focus of the discussion onto the plan of action, to which France responded with a refraining of its accusations and stating that the point of the delegation’s motion was to discuss international communication to prevent situations like the one of China to be replicated in the future.
Whilst the coronavirus has a country of origin, the delegation of China had emphasized that collaboration should be mis en relief, which had been contested by the delegation of Sweden.
The Chairperson of the WHO committee had concluded the second session by disapproving of France’s actions, stating that the accusation of countries can lead to a vicious cycle that would be hard to escape, especially considering the time limit of the SGMUN conference.