Antonio Guterres says Covid-19 represents ‘fight of a generation’ as China wades into row between WHO and Taiwan

This article is more than 5 months old

This article is more than 5 months old

The head of the United Nations has called the coronavirus pandemic the “fight of a generation” and a threat to world peace and security.

The secretary general, Antonio Guterres, warned the UN security council that the pandemic had the potential to increase social unrest and violence, which would greatly undermine the world’s ability to fight the disease.

It was, he said, the UN’s most grave test since it was founded 75 years ago and had already hindered efforts to resolve international, regional and national conflicts.

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“This is the fight of a generation and the raison dêtre [reason for being] of the United Nations itself,” he said.

More than 95,000 people had died by Friday morning after contracting Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the figures. More than 1.6 million had been diagnosed as the economic impact continued to grow. One in 10 Americans had lost their job as a result of the virus and the IMF chief said the world was on track for the biggest downturn since the Great Depression.

Guterres said the world was already seeing the “ruinous social and economic impacts. But the pandemic also poses a significant threat to the maintenance of international peace and security.”

He warned the pandemic could lead to opportunistic terror attacks, the erosion of trust in public institutions, economic instability, political tensions from postponing elections or referendums, and Covid-19 “triggering or exacerbating various human rights challenges”.

He said security council involvement would be “critical to mitigate the peace and security implications” and “a signal of unity and resolve from the council would count for a lot at this anxious time”.

After its Thursday meeting with Guterres, which was held via closed video link, the security council issued its first statement since the outbreak began. It expressed “support for all efforts of the secretary general concerning the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic to conflict-affected countries and recalled the need for unity and solidarity with all those affected.”

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Amid the call for unity, China weighed in on a growing row between the World Health Organisation and Taiwan.

Late on Thursday China’s Taiwan affairs office accused Taiwan’s government of “unscrupulously using the virus to seek independence, venomously attacking the WHO and its responsible people, conniving with the green internet army to wantonly spread racist comments … We strongly condemn this.”

It followed the trading of accusations between the WHO and Taiwan over recent days, largely stemming from Taiwan’s continued exclusion from WHO membership and activities because of lobbying by China’s Communist party government, which claims Taiwan as Chinese territory. Taiwan has been successful in preventing a mass outbreak but has repeatedly complained of being left out of the coordinated global response, risking Taiwanese lives.

The WHO has been accused of being too deferential to China and praising its virus response despite the government initially suppressing information about the outbreak. The WHO denies the charge and on Wednesday its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he had been subjected to months of attacks including racist ones against him and black communities, and accused Taiwan of condoning the “campaign”.

In response Taiwan’s foreign ministry demanded a clarification and apology for the “groundless” accusation and an “extremely irresponsible act of slander”.

The Trump administration has joined in criticism of the WHO, accusing it of putting politics first by ignoring early warnings sounded by Taiwan. The state department on Thursday said the WHO left it too late and “chose politics over public health”.

This week Donald Trump threatened to withhold funding from the WHO, but was accused of seeking to make it a scapegoat in order to distract from his own failings in preparing the US for its own outbreak, which had infected more than 465,000 people and killed almost 15,000 by Friday morning.

In other developments: