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G20 Leaders Video Meeting Cancelled Amid U.S.-China Fight Over World Health Organization

The first video conference between G20 leaders was hastily called off amid a quarrel over the World Health Organization.

A planned video conference to be held Friday between G20 leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, was scrapped at the last minute after disagreements between the two nations about the World Health Organization. The South China Morning Post, quoting an unnamed organizer of the conference, reported that the event was hastily taken off the official agenda published by Saudi Arabia, which holds the current presidency of the G20. “China thinks the U.S. ordered a halt in funding for the WHO to get rid of the poor leadership in combating the coronavirus and [to] try to blame China, but the U.S. thinks the WHO was partial to China and that China should be responsible for the heavy losses in the US,” Shen Dingli, a professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai told the paper. It is unclear if or when the video conference will be rescheduled.