UN intellectual property agency the latest battleground as China and US vie for influence

Beijing’s nominee Wang Binying is widely seen as the front runner in next week’s election

Chinese officials have accused US of pressuring other member states not to vote for her, while Washington has reportedly sought to promote Singaporean

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China and the US are competing for influence at the UN, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva is their latest focus. Photo: ullstein bild via Getty Images

Published: 10:00pm, 1 Mar 2020Updated: 10:00pm, 1 Mar 2020

Beijing and Washington have sparred over the potential election of a Chinese national to head the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) next week, the latest in their tug-of-war battle for influence at the United Nations.

Wang Binying, Beijing’s nominee and current deputy director general of Wipo, is widely seen as the front runner in the election for director general of the organisation that promotes intellectual property protections which set global standards for patents, trademarks and copyrights. The five other candidates are from Kazakhstan, Ghana, Colombia, Peru and Singapore.

Ahead of the election, Chinese officials have accused the United States of warning and pressuring other member states not to vote for Wang, while Washington has reportedly sought to promote Singaporean nominee Daren Tang.

The strategic spat comes as Beijing has deepened its influence in the United Nations in recent years, becoming the second largest contributor to the organisation’s budget and UN peacekeeping operations after the US, while Chinese nationals now lead four of the 15 specialised UN agencies compared to one from the US.

Beijing’s nominee Wang Binying is seen as the front runner to lead the agency. Photo: Wipo

As Beijing has touted its version of global governance and promoted “safeguarding multilateralism” at the UN, an aversion to globalism and multilateralism has seen US President Donald Trump’s administration hold off funding to UN programmes and withdraw from the Human Rights Council and heritage body Unesco.