After the US exit, Beijing is ready to push Song Li to the World Wide Web Director General: the WHO power vacuum is turning into a US-China impact test site.

The institutional vacuum left by the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization is rapidly entering the major Powers to compete. Reuters quoted four diplomats and an informed source on October 6, . China plans to nominate, in the final stage, Songlie, Senior Public Health Officer, to run for the next Director-General of WHO to replace Tadesse, who will be retiring next year.

Song Li has long worked on maternal and child health policy and international cooperation, has served as Director of the Maternal and Child Health Department of the National Health and Health Commission of China and is currently the Secretary of the NUEW. , if officially nominated and finally elected, she will be the second Chinese official to lead WHO after Chan Fung Fu-jin.

The real change in the electoral pattern was the departure of the United States.

Following the withdrawal of the Trump Government from WHO, WHO lost one of the largest sources of long-term funding and political support, forced to cut budgets, restructure institutions and downsize jobs. At the same time, China remains in the system and is committed to increasing its support for WHO. The time point for the launch of the candidates in Beijing is clearly strategic.

This does not mean that the Chinese candidate will necessarily prevail. The Director-General of WHO is elected by the Member States and the candidates who have been publicly elected or are ready to run are from Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Qatar, Botswana, Indonesia and Spain. The full list of candidates is expected to be formed after the meetings of the relevant regional commissions in early November.

Song Li's professional experience will be examined and the relationship between the Chinese government and WHO will be re-opened during the epidemic

Song Li has more than 20 years of experience in the area of maternal and child health and has participated in the development of guidelines for the management of maternal and child health during the new coronary disease. The professional competence of her individual is ultimately assessed by the member States in the official campaign.

But the election will not be about personal history alone. During the new coronation, WHO and the Chinese Government worked together to obtain information, access to early outbreak data and investigative powers, which had been the subject of long-standing controversy. WHO denied being controlled by Beijing, and the Chinese Government has been opposed to the politicization of the epidemic from the outside. If Song Li were to become an official candidate, these disputes would almost certainly have to re-enter the electoral debate.

Beijing is not just a post, but an agenda-setting capacity in the multilateral system

The Director-General of WHO does not issue direct orders on behalf of any single country, but can influence organizational budget priorities, crisis response, member country coordination, data disclosure and the international health agenda. For China, which has long emphasized an expanded role in the United Nations system, this post has diplomatic value beyond health policy itself.

The official influence of Washington on the Agency has declined significantly since the withdrawal of the United States from WHO. Beijing, if it were to increase its funding and put forward its candidates, would have the opportunity to expand its sense of presence at the institutional level. There will be increased responsibilities: if China wishes to be considered a leader of a multilateral public health system, it must face the most questionable problems of the past, such as data transparency, independent investigations, and information sharing on outbreaks.

The election is therefore not simply “who will replace Tandese”. It will test two directions: who will fill the space left behind by the US’s withdrawal from multilateral institutions, and whether China will accept the same higher requirements of transparency and accountability when it gains greater institutional leverage.