May 8 (AP)

Xi jinping’s China has been criticised for its role including alleged attempts to suppress information about coronavirus

disease last year.

The chorus for transparency and investigation into the outbreak of the coronavirus disease is growing louder in the run up to the truncated session of the World Health Assembly 10 days later.

The disease, which originated in China late last year, has killed more than a quarter of a million people across the world in a little over four months. China has been blamed by many countries for not giving the world a heads up about the disease that could have minimised its spread. Questions have also been asked of the World Health Organisation that has been accused of being overly deferential to China.

The loudest criticism of China and WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has come from the United States President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. Last month, the US suspended funding to the WHO to drive home the point.

But the United States isn’t the only one upset about China and WHO’s role.

Over the last week and more, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also lent the grouping’s backing to calls for an investigation into the origin of Covid outbreak.

This week, the European Union declared that it would move a resolution at the World Health Assembly for a timely review of the international response to the coronavirus pandemic including the World Health Organisation’s performance.

Diplomats in Washington and Geneva suggest that the resolution, which was being drafted in consultation with a large number of countries, presented a huge test for China in the run up to the global health body’s annual meeting.

Beijing has been under fire over its early handling of the virus, which has pushed the global economy toward recession as it spreads around the world. Cases have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since they were first identified in China in December 2019.

British defence secretary Ben Wallace too questioned the role of China in the Covid-19 outbreak, asserting that China needs to be open and transparent about what it learnt, its shortcomings also successes.