US to counter China’s ‘malign’ influence on United Nations, says senior official
- US to build alliance at UN to investigate the source of Covid-19 and address human rights abuses in Xinjiang, ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield says
- China has moved aggressively to boost its influence at the United Nations, securing top positions for its nationals
“They exert enormous influence in the United Nations, and it’s malign … influence that promotes an authoritarian approach to multilateralism,” US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We need to fight that every step of the way.”
The US is engaged again in global affairs after years of focusing more exclusively on domestic affairs, an absence that has allowed China and other authoritarian states to gain influence, Thomas-Greenfield said, without mentioning the Trump administration by name.
Others were not so coy.
“During the last four years, the United States shied away from multilateral engagement, ceding America’s historic leadership and damaging our standing with the international community,” said Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York and the committee’s chairman.
“As a result, China and other countries that do not reflect our nation’s values have taken leadership posts at a number of inter-governmental organisations.”
Thomas-Greenfield said Washington paying its UN dues was a first step to countering China’s growing UN influence, even as Washington pushes for reforms at the 75-year organisation. Beijing has repeatedly chided Washington over its arrears.
Biden’s East Asia nominee says China is ‘biggest geopolitical test’ for US
The US also needed to recruit young, talented Americans to junior spots in the organisation toward filling more top jobs, she added. Thomas-Greenfield, a career diplomat, previously oversaw human resources at the State Department involving some 70,000 employees.
China has moved aggressively to boost its influence at the global body, securing top positions for its nationals at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the International Telecommunication Union and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation as well as junior spots within the UN Secretariat.
“We are regularly engaging on the genocide issue of the Uygurs and raising that at the Security Council,” she told the committee.
“I’m also appalled that we have to sit next to some of the world’s worst human rights abusers, when we’re sitting in the council.”
But “many issues would be left unspoken, many human rights violators would get away with their actions, if we were not at the table to raise those issues,” she added. “We’re working to enhance US leadership.”
