The United Nations is bloated, costly, badly in need of reform, and too often works against US interests, but pulling out of the international organisation would see China expand its influence and leave Washington at a major disadvantage, according to testimony before a House oversight committee on Wednesday.
The hearing came as the administration of US President Donald Trump has imposed an “America first” overhaul of international funding, leaving the UN, over the past 18 months, at what Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called a “financial breaking point”.
US arrears currently amount to some US$2.2 billion for its regular budget and US$1.8 billion for peacekeeping.
“There is something systematically rotten within the organisation, but it doesn’t mean we should abandon it,” said Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida. “Abandoning the UN just speeds China’s progress there.”
Moscowitz added that China controls more votes than the US does by leveraging its funding of Belt and Road Initiative projects in Latin America and Africa to garner diplomatic support.
“You know, they went around and spent a tonne of money in all these small countries and picked up a tonne of votes at the UN,” he told the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Intelligence Subcommittee.
“We recognise its problems, and we have to figure out how to fix it; leaving it only speeds this situation up even faster and allows China to control the organisation.”
As the Trump administration has aggressively cut UN contributions, denounced the organisation and many humanitarian efforts, China has stepped into the “soft power” vacuum. It has been sure to pay its dues in full – although at times at the end of the year when the UN is unable to spend the money – and expressed full-throated support for multilateralism and the UN Charter.
While those testifying on Wednesday expressed bipartisan support for revamping a UN system that has expanded inexorably since 1945, the Republican majority punctuated a host of long-standing complaints. These included accusing the global body of supporting antisemitism, terrorism, gender rights and abortion while undercutting US sovereignty and failing to vote consistently with Washington.
Cory Mills, a Republican from Florida, questioned why the institution has fallen so short on achieving peace despite its large peacekeeping budgets when, he said, the US president has brought an end to at least eight wars, including Gaza and India-Pakistan. Trump has made no secret of his desire for a Nobel Peace Prize.
“These are just examples of what President Trump has done without the need of additional peacekeeping funding,” he said. “It’s Useless Nations, not the United Nations.”
Eugene Kontorovich, a senior fellow with the conservative advocacy group Advancing American Freedom, said he agreed that the UN should continue in some form. But he said if China suddenly offered to build a “beautiful building” and everything was shipped off to Beijing, it would lose its appeal.
“It is not the same prize for China to take over,” he said. “With the United States in, it makes sense for China to try to assert influence, because it has vastly more credibility.”
Kontorovich added: “You know the argument, that China is going to take over, or China will eat our cake,” he said. “But the United Nations without the United States is not the same United Nations.”
While critics charge Beijing with stacking the UN’s intern and officer ranks with Chinese nationals, both the US and China are under-represented relative to the size of their budgets and what they are entitled to, said Brett Schaefer, senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute.
The US is responsible for paying some 22 per cent and China 20 per cent of the general budget. Under a formula based on geography, population, and budget, the US is under-represented by around 2,500 people and China by about 1,200.
But what is concerning, Schaefer said, is the degree of sway Beijing exerts over its citizens working at the UN, who are, in theory, supposed to focus primarily on global governance rather than Chinese national interests.
Schaefer cited the case of Meng Hongwei, the president of Interpol, who travelled to Beijing in 2018, and never emerged.
“The threat of Chinese retribution on individuals and family members is stark inside the UN system and allows China to influence what their staff do inside the system in ways that we wouldn’t do and shouldn’t do,” he added.
The Chinese embassy in Washington said the testimony at Wednesday’s hearing distorted China’s UN position and relations with developing countries.
“Countries make independent judgments at the UN based on the merits of each issue and their own interests,” said embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu. “Their positions should not be distorted by certain people through a Cold War mindset or the logic of bloc confrontation.” -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
