Wang Yi Meets with World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

On February 5, 2022, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was on a visit to China to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

Tedros extended Spring Festival greetings to China for the Year of the Tiger, saying that he is very glad to come to China and participate in the torch relay at this special moment. The Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 brings solidarity, peace and hope to the world amid the pandemic, and will help everyone tide over the current difficult times. Tedros congratulated China on its great achievements in pandemic prevention and control, commended China's strong support for the global fight against the pandemic, and spoke highly of China's aid of 600 million doses of vaccine to Africa and its donation to the COVAX Facility. The WHO stands ready to continue to strengthen cooperation with China in the field of health, and expects and believes that China will play an important role in achieving the goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the world's population.

Wang Yi said, this year marks the 50th anniversary of New China's restoration of its lawful seat in the WHO. Over the past 50 years, China has carried out practical and effective cooperation with the WHO on all fronts, at various levels and in a wide range of fields, and has continuously supported and actively participated in the WHO's efforts to address various challenges. We have successfully defeated Ebola together, and I believe that we will prevail over the coronavirus together.

Wang Yi said, since the outbreak of the pandemic, China has acted on the philosophy of putting people and their lives front and center and lending a helping hand to others after one becomes well-off, has vigorously carried forward the spirit of fighting the pandemic in global solidarity, and has supported safeguarding global public health security through concrete actions. We have overcome our own difficulties and launched the largest emergency humanitarian operation since the founding of New China, supplying more than 2.1 billion doses of vaccine to more than 120 countries and international organizations. The first batch of vaccines received by many developing countries, especially African countries, came from China, and most vaccines they obtained so far also came from China. China supports the Strategy to Achieve Global COVID-19 Vaccination by mid-2022 proposed by the WHO, and is willing to strengthen cooperation with the WHO on closing the immunization gap and realizing vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries, so as to make due contributions to prevailing over the pandemic across the globe, and jointly build a global community of health for all.