The Chinese government has nominated one of its own, former China National Health Commission director Dr. Song Li, to become the next director-general of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.).
Reuters reported the nomination on Thursday morning and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning confirmed it at a press conference.
Mao said the nomination was part of China’s bid to gain more influence in multinational organizations like W.H.O. after the United States withdrew support – an action taken by President Donald Trump in July 2020, in part because he said China already had far too much sway over the U.N. health agency.
“China has total control over the World Health Organization despite only paying $40 million per year compared to what the United States has been paying, which is approximately $450 million a year,” Trump said when announcing the withdrawal.
The Biden administration retracted Trump’s decision to withdraw in January 2021, but Trump once again signed an executive order to pull out of W.H.O. when he returned to office in January 2025.
“At a time when multilateralism is facing challenges and much remains to be done in advancing global health, the role of the W.H.O. director-general is particularly important in ensuring that the organization continues to develop steadily amid new changes and circumstances,” Mao said at her press conference on Thursday.
“China’s nomination of Dr Song Li demonstrates China’s willingness to work with all parties to build a community of health for all, and reflects China’s firm support for multilateralism and the W.H.O.,” she said.
“We believe that if Dr. Song Li is elected W.H.O. director-general, she will help the organization play a more active role in improving the health and wellbeing of all humanity,” she said.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) noted on Thursday that Song would become “the first person from mainland China to head the United Nations health agency.”
A doctor from Hong Kong named Margaret Chan held the post from 2007 to 2017, to be succeeded by the current director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The director general of W.H.O. is appointed to a five-year term by the World Health Assembly (W.H.A.), and can be reappointed once, so Tedros must leave office in August 2027.
Song is the seventh candidate to be nominated so far to succeed Tedros. The others hail from Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Indonesia, Spain, and Botswana.
Song held the post of Director-General of the Department of Women and Child Health at China’s National Health Commission until last month. She also sits on the secretariat of the All-China Women’s Federation, an organ of the Chinese Communist Party that is directly supervised by Party leadership.
Song was educated at Shandong Medical University and Peking University, and was a “visiting scholar in global health” at Harvard for six months in 2010. She was involved in China’s response to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, helping to create procedures for maternity and newborn care, and she helped to establish networks for treating pregnant women infected with the coronavirus.
Reuters quoted a former senior W.H.O. official who said China might use Song’s candidacy as “leverage to gain greater influence in the W.H.O. by making sure there are more Chinese senior officials at the organization.”
The U.S. is still the largest single contributor to W.H.O. by assessments, with China in fourth place, but the WHA suspended America’s voting rights in the organization in May because of “unpaid arrears.”
W.H.O. said it reduced its base budget by about 21 percent after President Trump signed his executive order to withdraw in January. The W.H.A. said that it will not officially recognize U.S. withdrawal until it pays all of its unpaid dues.
Argentina also withdrew from W.H.O. last year, but unlike the United States, it had no legal right to withdraw included with its membership, whether its dues are paid or not. To date, W.H.O. has never formally accepted the withdrawal of a member nation.