China will have to play by rules; US to rejoin WHO, says Joe Biden

US President-elect Joe Biden has said that he wants to make sure that China plays by the rules and announced that his administration will rejoin the World Health Organization.

Biden was responding to a question on about his remarks during the presidential debates that he wanted to punish China over the way Beijing has been behaving. He was asked if that could include economic sanctions or tariffs on China, the world's second-largest economy.

In April, President Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw from the WHO, accusing the UN organisation for failing to oversee the onset of the coronavirus as it began to spread in China. “It's not so much about punishing China, it's about making sure China understands they've got to play by the rules. It’s a simple proposition,” Biden said during a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors in Wilmington, Delaware.

He said that is one of the reasons why his administration is going to rejoin the WHO. "We're going to rejoin on day one as well and it needs reform, acknowledge, and rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. And we have to make sure that the rest of the world and we get together and make sure there are certain right lines the Chinese understand," Joe Biden, a Democrat, said.