US senators, envoy nominee raise concerns over China's rising clout at UN

United Nations, Jan 22 US Senators and the nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations have raised concerns about China's growing influence at the world body through the use of money to get votes and a strong push to put more of its nationals in key jobs.

“Many senators are raising this deep concern about CCP's [Chinese Communist Party] inroads," Elise Stefanik, President Donald Trump's nominee for US Permanent Representative – a cabinet-level post – said on Tuesday.

"It's no question", she said, "that the CCP has made strong inroads. We need to have strong American leadership working with our allies to push back on this".

Washington has to make "a significant effort to try to peel off" the votes of the Global South in the General Assembly from China, she said.

The China factor came up when Stefanik, a foreign policy hawk who was a Republican member of the House of Representatives, appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington for a hearing on her appointment.

The Permanent Representative's post, like many senior administration jobs, needs the Senate's approval.

Stefanik said she would project Trump's 'America First' policy at the UN.

When Senator Pete Ricketts complained about the "mismanagement, corruption, rot" at the UN and the need for reforms, Stefanik agreed with him that US contribution to the UN, which is 22 per cent of its budget, should be a "key tool for us to demand reforms and transparency".

Trump laid out the case against China when he made it one of his reasons for the US to leave the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Paris Climate Accord.

He said that WHO was under China's influence and was repeating its "talking points" even though the US was its largest contributor.

The US paid a heavy price under the Paris agreement to cut carbon emissions despite China being a bigger polluter, he said.

Stefanik said, "The President shared with me that he sees great promise in the United Nations if it focuses on its founding mission of international peace and security".

It has failed in this mission and Trump's vision is for a UN reformed by a "strong. America First, peace through strength leadership", she said.

The Senate Committee Chair, James Risch said he was concerned that the US was getting outvoted at the General Assembly.

“When you look at these countries that are voting against us, you look and find that you have the Chinese in there spreading money, and they buy their vote”, he said.

Stefanik said, "We need to have a broader strategy reaching out to countries within the Global South, where China has made significant inroads".

“They've done it by building ports, through telecom, a whole government approach” and Beijing leverages these for votes at the UN, she said.

Ricketts said that between 2009 and 2021, China has increased the number of its nationals working at the UN by 85 per cent.

"It would be naive to think they are not driving Communist China's agenda to the UN, whatever role they have", he said.

Stefanik said that there was a problem with China trying to capture key leadership positions at UN agencies and "we need to make sure we are running candidates, either American or allied nations, in the elections process".

"We need to pay close attention to technical organisations, whether it is telecommunications, civil aviation", she said.

She cited the 2020 defeat of China's candidate to lead the World Intellectual Property Organisation by a Singaporean backed by the US in a tough contest.

Democrat Senator Brian Schatz cautioned against the US withdrawing from UN agencies like WHO saying it would only empower China.

"We would be cutting off our nose to spite our face if we just go away from these international convenings”, he said, “because China is not going away, they are trying to run the meetings and to the extent that we withdraw”.