TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Fox News host Tucker Carlson described World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as “a joke” because of the latter’s remarks about Taiwan.

At a news conference on April 8, the WHO director-general complained that he had been attacked by Taiwan and even accused his critics on the island of “racism.” His comments touched off a wave of indignation, with a fundraising campaign to publish a rebuke in The New York Times receiving an overwhelming response.

Speaking to an expert at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), on his show “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the host accused Adhanom of repeated lying on behalf of China, starting with the claim that the coronavirus could not be transferred between humans. Later, the WHO chief also changed the official name of the virus to COVID-19 at Beijing’s behest, Carlson said.

When the WHO said that wearing masks would not be necessary, China was already hoarding them, according to the Fox News host. He also repeated allegations that while serving in the government of his native Ethiopia, Adhanom had suppressed information about two cholera outbreaks.

Carlson said the WHO chief’s accusation that U.S. President Donald Trump was politicizing the issue was also wrong since it was Tedros himself who had been playing politics by excluding Taiwan from the global health community.

Chen also defended Taiwan and accused the WHO of whitewashing China’s faults. Chen, who was also an adviser to former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, wrote an op-ed for the The Wall Street Journal suggesting the U.S. should leave the WHO and form a new parallel organization.