China to give $648m to WHO in next 5 years, official says

Why wouldn't they recognize Taiwan? Are they gonna confuse it for Japan somehow?

China acted faster and more efficiently than most other countries, especially consider they were the first to be hit.

Good. There was a scientific paper in the last week that didn’t fully discredit lab leak theory but made an extremely persuasive case—based on genetic analysis—that it was spread from bats to other mammals who were then hunted and brought to the wet market by randos.

Original paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867425003538

NY Times summary (gift link): https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/science/covid-coronavirus-bats-genetics.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I08.JwTo.IDxqWwXodYVf

China (responsibly, to stop the spread) did cull some animals between the bat cave and Wuhan. No one who cares about science will ever say something with 100% certainty unless it breaks the laws of physics or whatever. And we’ll never find the pangolin (or whatever) someone sold at the wet market. But very little from scientists points to lab leak. It’s all political actors making that claim.

Great. The WHO needs funding.

and therefore WHO will not recognise Taiwan.

To be fair, they probably need it to replace Zak Starkey, after firing him again.

Guess we're gonna get COVID-26 when China downplays yet another pandemic.