The United States should take steps to counter China’s efforts to subvert the principles of the United Nations and its organs, including preparing a report on Beijing’s actions to sway the votes of UN members, a U.S. commission recommended. in a new report presented to Congress.
The report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, released on Tuesday, comes in the context of concerns in New Delhi and other world capitals about China’s enormous influence on the organs of the UN at a time when efforts to reform the world body have made little progress.
The commission recommended that the United States Congress should direct the state department to produce annual reports “detailing China’s actions in the United Nations and its subordinate agencies that subvert the principles and purposes of the United Nations.” Such reports should document China’s actions that violate UN treaties and are aimed at “influencing the votes of UN members, including through coercive means.”
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The reports should also list China’s actions to “nominate or support candidates for United Nations leadership positions who do not adhere to United Nations standards for impartiality or who are subject to the influence of the Chinese government.” and actions of Chinese citizens and others who hold positions in the UN. that appear to support the interests of the Chinese government in violation of UN standards of impartiality.
The commission further recommended that the reports should document the actions of “Chinese military and support personnel involved in United Nations peacekeeping operations that are inconsistent with the principles governing these missions, including the deployment of these personnel by part of China to protect its economic interests and improve the power projection capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army.
The commission was scathing in its analysis of China’s role in the UN, saying that Beijing’s efforts to “transform global governance is really a call to change the UN system to bring it more in line with Beijing’s principles and preferences.”
“Beijing has tried to bring international law and the UN definition of human rights closer to its own interests by decreasing the emphasis on individual rights. China is the second-largest donor to the UN after the United States: it provides 12 percent of the total UN budget, up from 1 percent 20 years ago. The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] seeks to use this as a lever to reduce funding for human rights functions, such as human rights officers in peacekeeping missions, ”the report says.
In addition, China has tried to use UN legal instruments such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea for its own benefit, and also exploits its influence over UN organizations to “promote specific Chinese foreign policy objectives, contrary to both the spirit and the letter of how the UN was intended to function, “the commission said.
Noting that Chinese officials currently serve as director general of four of the 15 specialized agencies of the UN (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Telecommunication Union and the Organization of the United Nations for Industrial Development), the commission said that these officials “violate UN norms of leading and taking advantage of the institutions they lead to advance China’s political goals, such as policies relating to Taiwan.”
China’s election to the UN Human Rights Council in October, albeit with fewer votes than in 2016, raised concern in the context of events in Xinjiang and Hong and its assertive actions in areas ranging from the South China Sea to Taiwan and Ladakh.
In New Delhi, China is often seen as a key force hampering UN and Security Council reforms, including their expansion to include more permanent members like India. China is the only P5 member that has not endorsed India’s admission to a reformed and expanded Security Council.
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