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U.S. NEWS Saturday 30 May 2020
U.S. cuts WHO ties over virus, takes action against Hong Kong

Continued from Front and scientific organizations
who depend on tuition fees
The U.S. is the largest source paid by Chinese students
of financial support for the to offset other costs. In ad-
WHO and its exit is expec- dition, those institutions fear
ted to significantly weaken possible reciprocal action
the organization. Trump from Beijing that could limit
said the U.S. would be “re- their students’ and educa-
directing” the money to tors’ access to China.
“other worldwide and de- In a nod to those concerns,
serving urgent global pu- the officials said any res-
blic health needs,” without trictions would be narrowly
providing specifics. He said tailored to affect only stu-
Chinese officials “ignored” dents who present a signi-
their reporting obligations ficant risk of engaging in
to the WHO and pressu- espionage or intellectual
red it to mislead the world property theft. The officials
when the virus was first dis- could not say how many
covered. He noted that the people could ultimately
U.S. contributes about $450 be expelled, although they
million to the world body Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization, speaks during said it would be only a frac-
the 147th session of the WHO Executive Board session in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, May 22,2020.
while China provides about Associated Press tion of the Chinese students
$40 million. in the country.
Tensions over Hong Kong nistration was considering Although the student expul- der a “one country, two sy- “We’re very worried about
have been increasing for expelling thousands of Chi- sions aren’t directly related stems” policy. how broadly this will be
more than a year as China nese graduate students en- to Hong Kong and China’s Pompeo’s determination applied, and we’re con-
has cracked down on pro- rolled at U.S. universities. move to assert full control opened the door to possi- cerned it could send a
testers and sought to exert Trump is also weighing tar- over the former British ter- ble sanctions and the loss message that we no longer
more control over the for- geted travel and financial ritory, potential sanctions of special perks Hong Kong welcome talented students
mer British territory. Trump sanctions against Chinese against officials involved in has received from the and scholars from around
said the administration officials for actions in Hong that effort would be a result United States. But neither the globe,” said Sarah
would begin eliminating Kong, according to the of- of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo nor other officials Spreitzer, director of go-
the “full range” of agree- ficials, who were not autho- Pompeo’s determination were able Wednesday to vernment relations at the
ments that had given Hong rized to discuss the matter that Hong Kong can no describe what action the American Council on Edu-
Kong a relationship with the publicly and spoke on con- longer be considered au- administration might take, cation.
U.S. that mainland China dition of anonymity. tonomous from mainland an uncertainty related to The U.S. hosted 133,396 gra-
lacked, including on trade “We’ll be announcing what China. Pompeo notified the impact that such sanc- duate students from China
and extradition. He said the we’re doing tomorrow with Congress on Wednesday tions would have on U.S. in the 2018-19 academic
State Department would respect to China and we that Hong Kong is no longer companies that operate in year, and they made up
begin warning U.S. citizens are not happy with China,” deserving of the preferen- Hong Kong and the city’s 36.1% of all international
of the threat of surveillance Trump told reporters at an tial trade and commercial position as Asia’s major fi- graduate students, ac-
and arrest when visiting the unrelated event Thursday, status it has enjoyed from nancial hub. Trump’s com- cording to the Institute of
city. referring mainly to CO- the U.S. since it reverted to ments sparked a drop in International Education.
The president also said the VID-19. “We are not happy Chinese rule in 1997. Under U.S. financial markets. Overall, there were 369,548
U.S. would be suspending with what’s happened. All a joint Sino-British agree- Serious consideration of the students from China, ac-
entry of certain Chinese over the world people are ment on the handover, visa revocation proposal, counting for 33.7% of inter-
citizens. He didn’t provide suffering, 186 countries. All Hong Kong was to be go- first reported by The New national students who con-
specifics, but officials said over the world they’re suf- verned differently than the York Times, has faced op- tributed nearly $15 billion to
this week that the admi- fering. We’re not happy.” mainland for 50 years un- position from U.S. universities the U.S. economy in 2018.q
Biden: George Floyd’s death shows ‘open wound’ of US racism

By WILL WEISSERT The presumptive Demo- to incite violence."
Associated Press cratic presidential nomi- "This is time for real leader-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe nee has built his campaign ship," he said.
Biden said Friday that the around a promise to heal That was a reference to
"open wound" of systemic "the soul of the nation" Trump, who at first con-
racism was behind the po- and is suddenly getting his demned police action in
lice killing of a handcuffed chance to try in real time. Minneapolis.
black man in Minnesota. Biden said he spoke to the But the president later
Biden also accused Presi- family of George Floyd, warned online that protest-
dent Donald Trump, with- a handcuffed black man ers could be shot, prompt-
out mentioning him by who was killed in Minne- ing Twitter to flag his tweet
name, of inciting violence apolis this week after a as glorifying violence. Twit-
with a tweet that warned white police officer knelt ter's move further escalat-
that protesters could be on his neck. Floyd's death ed tensions between the
shot. touched off violent protests White House and the so-
"We are a country with an there and elsewhere. cial media platform, which
open wound. None of us The former vice president fact-checked a tweet of In this March 10, 2020, file photo Democratic presidential
can turn away," Biden said said now was "no time for his earlier this week.q candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks to members
of the press at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
in a brief address. incendiary tweets. No time Associated Press