Up to 62 separate nations were expected to back a motion calling for an independent probe into the origins of the outbreak, the Chinese and the international response, and the actions of the World Health Organisation, at a World Health Assembly meeting on Monday night Australian time.

The WHA is the governing body for the WHO. It is made up of the health ministers of the 194 member states. Meetings are usually held at the Palace of Nations in Geneva each May. This year, as a result of the coronavirus, it is being held online. Australia is being represented by Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt.

While the wording of the draft resolution did not specifically refer to China or to Wuhan, it was broadly in line with what Scott Morrison and others have been advocating.

Its greatest flaw is that any investigation would not be truly independent. WHO's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus, would be responsible for overseeing an investigation that was reviewing his own actions.

Tedros, a former Ethiopian Health Minister and Foreign Minister, is the first non-physician to be elected WHO director-general.

He won the election thanks to the support of a bloc of African and Asian countries, including China, at the WHA meeting in May, 2017.

Prior to his election, he had indicated support for the "one China" policy that excludes Taiwan from international bodies such as the United Nations and the WHO.

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and, while it was a founding member of the WHO, the island state lost its position when mainland China took over its UN membership in 1971.

Taiwan had been granted observer status to the WHA in 2009. It has been excluded from the WHA since 2017.

A vote on whether or not Taiwan's observer status should be reinstated is considered one of the most important issues facing this week's meeting.

While it seems probable that, like the call for the inquiry, this resolution won't get up because of the significant resources Beijing has devoted to securing the votes of dependent states in Africa and the Pacific, a large vote in favour would be significant.

China has, thanks to its so-called "wolf warrior diplomacy", which involves putting pressure on countries that have been critical of it, alienated much of the developed world.

Australia is not the only country to have been threatened with boycotts and trade sanctions.

The bloc that has rallied behind the inquiry now includes all 27 member states of the European Union, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and Indonesia.

Although America has stopped short of co-sponsoring the motion, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has urged all nations to back the call.

If China continues down the path of "wolf diplomacy" it may succeed in uniting much of the world against it.

That would not be a good thing; either for China or the rest of the world.

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China's position may be more vulnerable than its current leaders are willing to admit. The anti-western posturing could be more about keeping the lid on dissent at home than anything else.

Everybody needs to take a deep breath and consider what is best for all. This is not the time for xenophobic nationalism either here, in America, in Europe, or in China.

Co-operation is in everybody's best interest. No nation is big enough to get through this crisis alone.

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