As Donald Trump focuses on ‘America First’, China flexes its growing muscle at UN
- China seen as using its clout to undermine human rights positions and back resolutions that reflect its world view
- Beijing has surpassed Japan as the body’s second biggest contributor
China sees a widening void at the United Nations, thanks to US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy.
Trump’s scepticism of global bodies and alliances – his top diplomat recently singled out the UN as an organisation that needs to be “reformed or eliminated” – means Beijing has freer reign to impose its own vision of globalism on the body.
This year China surpassed Japan as the UN’s second-biggest donor, and analysts say it is using its growing clout to undermine human rights positions, sponsor resolutions that reflect its world view, and stamp out criticism of its more controversial policies back home.
“China sees a much greater value in the multilateral system as its power status grows,” said Jake Sherman, a former official at the US Mission to the UN who is now a director at the International Peace Institute in New York.
“They say, ‘We have this guy Trump who does not care about the UN. Let’s see how far we can push this.’”
China’s internationalist approach has at times come as a relief to much of the world, especially as Beijing champions environmental accords spurned by the US.