A senior advisor to the director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) hung up during a video interview with Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), Hong Kong's public broadcasting service.

He disconnected the call after the interviewer from The Pulse, an English-language current affairs programme by RTHK, asked him to speak about the situation in Taiwan.

Asked if WHO would reconsider Taiwan's membership

Bruce Aylward, the WHO's assistant director-general, was interviewed about the WHO's response to the Covid-19 outbreak, for which it has faced criticism for being too slow in exercising its emergency authority.

The online interview was part of The Pulse's report on the Covid-19 situation in New York City, London, and Lombardy.

When the interviewer, Yvonne Tong, asked Aylward about whether the WHO would consider Taiwan's membership, he became silent and was showing blinking multiple times on the video call.

After about eight seconds, Tong said, "Hello?", to which Aylward replied that he could not hear the question.

When Tong said that she would repeat her question, Aylward responded, "No, that's okay. Let's move to another one then."

However, when Tong again reiterated, "I'm actually curious in talking about Taiwan as well, on Taiwan's case", Aylward appeared to shift forward in his seat, and a second later, the call was disconnected.

Here's Tong's face when that happened:

Tong then called Aylward back to follow-up, asking, "And I just want to see if you can comment a bit on how Taiwan has done so far, in terms of containing the virus?"

Aylward replied by saying, "Well, we've already talked about China, and, you know, when you look across all the different areas of China, they've actually all done quite a good job."

He then promptly closed the call: "And with that, I'd like to thank you very much for inviting us to participate, and good luck as you go forward with the battle in Hong Kong."

You can watch the interaction in the programme here, starting at 19:52:

Online criticism of Aylward's behaviour

Many people, including a number of journalists, political scientists, and economists, took to social media to criticise Aylward's interview.

It is an embarrassing scene. @WHO Director General, Bruce Aylward, hangs up in an interview with RTHK when he is asked about reconsidering Taiwan’s membership. Ironically, despite being so close to China, Taiwan manages to keep the #coronavirus infection and fatality rate low. pic.twitter.com/bFWRXpCyHN

— Ezra Cheung (@ezracheungtoto) March 28, 2020

Resign, Bruce Aylward, resign. #China #Taiwan #coronavirus #WorldHealthOrganization https://t.co/eKHJ5M9n8n

— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) March 29, 2020

Embarrassing & unprofessional response by Bruce Aylward, senior @WHO official on #Taiwan's handling of #COVID19. He can't even utter the word "Taiwan", ignores question & hangs up.

Great work @yvonne_tg of @thepulse_rthk https://t.co/keeurroevI

— Simon Henderson (@simjhenderson) March 29, 2020

World Health Organization Asst Dir General doing everything possible to avoid taking a question on Taiwan. Cannot upset the PRC.

Worth watching growing influence of authoritarianism in action. pic.twitter.com/g817Q8TKdq

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) March 28, 2020

https://twitter.com/AnnaThoursie/status/1244198130511482882

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