Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, warned last week that any cuts to his organisation’s funding would result in “many more body bags” as coronavirus deaths soared

President Trump has been warned that he risks accelerating China’s rise to global leadership after making good on his threat to stop funding the World Health Organisation.

His announcement yesterday that he was withdrawing American funding of $400 million a year robs the agency of more than a tenth of its budget and opens the way for Beijing to step into an urgent funding gap as the world tries to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The news came just hours after Britain unveiled an additional donation of £65 million for the organisation, part of a £200 million package of international aid. The Department for International Development said that the aid was necessary “to prevent a second wave of coronavirus coming to the UK by slowing its