Can China fill funding and leadership gaps after America quit the WHO?
Beijing is now the global health body’s biggest assessed contributor, but its voluntary donations remained low in 2025
“I’m here to lobby for support,” said Jenny Stephens, Vanuatu’s director of public health.
“We are experiencing the global funding cuts – it’s affecting our programmes like malaria, TB and HIV. We’re already struggling.”
The WHO has estimated that aid cuts have already deprived some 53 million people, in crisis situations, of access to healthcare.
President Donald Trump ordered the US withdrawal from the WHO in January 2025 – a move that took full effect early this year, with last month’s World Health Assembly (WHA) the first to be held without the United States.
China has now emerged as the global health body’s biggest assessed contributor for the first time, replacing the US and raising the question of whether Beijing can not only fill the funding gap left by Washington, but also the leadership void.