_Beijing is using the outbreak to boost its reputation for global cooperation while Washington plays the blame-Beijing game.

_

In a bid to restore its reputation globally, China claims to have fundamentally contained the spread of coronavirus in its hardest-hit areas and has pledged $20 million to help the World Health Organization to help improve public health systems in poor countries, Chinas United Nations ambassador wrote in a letter to U.N. member states.

The messagewhich was delivered as the United States and Europe brace for a major surge in casesunderscored how Beijing is attempting to rebrand itself as the international leader in a global fight against a virus that likely originated in its own territory and which WHO on Wednesday formally declared a pandemic.

The letter, obtained by_Foreign Policy_, appeared calculated to rebut growing criticism from the United States and elsewhere over its initial handling of the outbreak that allowed the disease to spread so rapidly. The spread of the epidemic has been basically contained in Hubei and Wuhan, Chinas U.N. ambassador Zhang Jun boasted in a letter to representatives of the U.N.s other 192 member states. We are ready to strengthen solidarity with the rest of the international community to jointly fight the epidemic.

The race by medical workers to stop the deadly viruss spread is playing out against a backdrop of big-power diplomatic rivalry between the United States and China, which are both seeking to use the calamity to stake out their claims to global influence.China cant be trusted as a global leaderon leadership in international institutions, on Chinese tech giant Huawei building sensitive 5G telecommunications networks in Europe, and on aid and investment in developing countries. Reflecting his America First doctrine, Trump himself even suggested in the early days of the outbreak that it might be good for the United States if Americans couldnt travel abroad. Were going to have Americans staying home instead of going and spending the money in other countries. And maybe thats one of the reasons the job numbers are so good, he said last Friday.

Unfortunately rather than using best practices, this outbreak in Wuhan was covered up, Robert OBrien, Trumps national security advisor, said in public remarks on Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. It probably cost the world community two months to respond.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo labeled the virus the Wuhan virusangeringChinese officials and others who say the label promotes xenophobiaand fumed that it has proven incredibly frustrating to work with the Chinese Communist Party to get accurate data on the outbreak.

The move comes as the United Nations has begun to scale back key conferences and meetings around the world. Last week, the U.N. suspended a critical portion of a major U.N. conference on womens rights in New York, turning away thousands of government officials and womens rights advocates who planned to fly to New York for the meeting.

On Wednesday, the five-memberbureauof the U.N. Human Rights Council, which consists of representatives of the councils five regional groups, recommended this years session be suspended indefinitely on Friday, according to a confidential copy of the minutes of the bureaus meeting. The rights councils 47 member states are expected to endorse the decision on Thursday. The decision was taken after delegations raised concern about the spread of coronavirus.

The Chinese initiative at the United Nations, meanwhile, appears calculated to burnish the image of Chinese President Xi Jinping himself, who faced international criticism for mishandling Chinas response in the critical early months, when government authorities actively sought to suppress information about the new virus and punished doctors and nurses who sought to ring the alarm bell. (Chinas central propaganda department is even reportedly in the process of producing a book lauding Xis leadership in the coronavirus response.)

Both the U.S. and China are trying to leverage the crisis to their own advantage, said Kristine Lee, an expert on the Asia-Pacific at the Center for a New American Security think tank.

But despite the Trump administrations tough rhetoric about the need to check Chinese influence in international organizations such as WHO, the State Department has done little to shore up its own influence, relying instead on denunciations.Pompeos description of the coronavirus as the Wuhan flu only complicates already fraught relations with China at time when the two countries need to share information and know-how, a second Democratic congressional aide argued. I expect my secretary of state to be an adult, and not hurl schoolyard insults just to get his jollies off, the aide said in a phone interview.With signs that the virus was abating at least at the epicenter of the outbreak, Xi traveled to Wuhan on March 10 to declare victory. President Xi pointed out that with our hard work, the situation in Hubei and Wuhan has shown positive chances with important progress, Zhang wrote in the March 10 letter to representatives of the other U.N. member states.Zhang highlighted the need for international cooperation in combating the virus, which has nowspread to over 100 countries, infected over 120,000 people, and killed some 4,300. Public health emergencies are a common challenge to all countries, he added. We thank all the countries and international organizations who have provided us with in-kind assistance, and we are now providing medical supplies including testing kits, face masks and preventive gears to several countries affected by the epidemic. Zhang later told reporters that China has sent medical teams and supplies to Japan, South Korea, and Italy. We have only one world, he said. We need to join hands, we need to show solidarity.

The dueling narratives that both Beijing and Washington are putting out have increased pressure on WHO, the leading international body tasked with coordinating a global response to coronavirus. Critics say the organization has been too soft on China in its response, particularly its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has effusively praised Chinas handling of the crisis.

The health organization faced criticism that it moved slowly in the early stages of the crisis to issue a formal declaration that the spread of the virus constituted a global health emergency. Facing push back from China, a WHO expert committee was unable to agree during a Jan. 22 meeting to issue the declaration. Just over a week later, facing mounting concerns about the virus spread, WHO declared the coronavirus a global health emergency but urged governments to continue trade and travel with China. This is the time for solidarity, not stigma, Tedros said.

Following a fact-finding tour by 25 international experts to Chinas hardest hit-areas in February, WHOs Bruce Aylward, who led the delegation, painted a highly flattering portrait of Beijings response. Its hospitals looked better than some I see here in Switzerland, Aylwardtoldthe_New York Times_. Wed ask, How many ventilators do you have? Theyd say 50.

Michael Collins, a research associate for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, described the report as a fusion of science and politics. The reports science, he said, tracks with what he knows about the course of the pandemic. But it makes a political judgement about the effectiveness of the Chinese response that does not strike me as connected with reality. It strikes me that WHO is really doing a good job of refurbishing Chinas image.

Collins, who studied at Peking University, also challenged Aylwards characterization of Chinas state-of-the-art medical facilities, recalling long lines and inadequate services and equipment at one of the most prestigiousacademic institutes in the country. Anyone who lives there knows that the last place you want to go to in China is a Chinese hospital, Collins said.

There is a certain disconnect to WHO statements, noted Lawrence Gostin, the director of the ONeill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetowns Universitys law school, noting that the health agency has ditched its traditional defense of human rights and press freedom in dealing with China. It has praised China, saying the China model should be copied globally, he added. Yet it has recommended against travel restrictions in all other countries.

But Gostin and other experts concede that Tedros and other top WHO leaders are in a difficult spot, balancing competing interests and trying to keep their clout in China, one of the organizations largest and most influential members. Tedros is in a very difficult position. And the truth is that WHO rarely criticizes countries that are at the epicenter of a pandemic, Gostin said.

Ultimately, some experts fear that Beijing and Washingtons tit-for-tat fight over the coronavirus could undercut the international institutions they established to fight epidemics of this scale.

Not only the U.S. and China but all governments should really rise to the occasion and rise above the attempt to use this to fight each other but find ways to collaborate and cooperate, said Hung Tran, a former senior International Monetary Fund official and senior fellow with the Atlantic Council. Unfortunately, it doesnt look like it is happening that way.

Colum Lynch is a senior staff writer at_Foreign Policy_.Twitter:@columlynch

Robbie Grameris a diplomacy and national security reporter at_Foreign Policy_.Twitter:@RobbieGramer

Interesting.