Last month, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, met President Xi Jinping in Beijing to discuss what China’s leader called “the devil virus”.
Dr Tedros, an Ethiopian who in 2017 became the first African to head the Geneva-based institution, has been thrust into the maelstrom created by the coronavirus, which by Friday had infected 31,000 people in China, killed 636 and spread to two dozen countries.
Following the meeting, state media reported comments from Dr Tedros praising China’s handling of an outbreak that has become the biggest crisis either he or Mr Xi have faced. “China’s speed, China’s scale and China’s efficiency . . . is the advantage of China’s system,” he was quoted as saying.