UN food agency FAO may face more US scrutiny with Chinese national Qu Dongyu at the helm
- World will be watching the UN’s food and agriculture agency when its new director general takes over in August
- Having greater influence at the body could give China ‘another point of entry’ into countries, alongside the Belt and Road Initiative
Qu Dongyu’s election to head the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation will extend China’s reach in the developing world, but it could also bring closer scrutiny from the US.
Elected on Sunday, Qu is now one of just a few Chinese nationals leading a major global organisation, and the world will be watching how the 55-year-old with little international experience may change the FAO when he takes the helm as director general in August.
One of the goals of the UN organisation is to eradicate hunger in the world by 2030, and it wields considerable power in global agricultural development projects, research and standard-setting in food production and safety. The FAO commands a US$2.6 billion budget and mobilised US$6.5 billion in investments in agriculture in 2017.
In his acceptance speech, Qu reportedly joked that the organisation needed a boost of “vitamin M” for “money”, and said he hoped to increase the FAO’s funding by 10 per cent annually.
But heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington may see more US scrutiny of the Qu-led FAO, according to Dirk Pfeiffer, chair of One Health at City University of Hong Kong.