A United Nations with Chinese characteristics?
Image: Addicted04. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Will the next phase of the United Nations’ life have distinctly Chinese characteristics?
It’s possible. China, the UN’s second largest contributor, is standing stoutly by the embattled multilateral body even as the US reviles it, slashes funding and shows no sign of paying the massive arrears of $1.7 billion it owes for peacekeeping.
Indeed, China has gone from providing just 1 per cent of UN funding in 1995 to more than 20 per cent of its budget today. Unsurprisingly, in parallel, Beijing has been putting its own people into entry-level UN jobs. Devex recently quoted Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group as follows: “[The Chinese] are straightforward about the fact that, if the US fails to pay its assessed contributions, China should be getting an even bigger share of top jobs.”
US lawmakers are aware of this. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, has already warned that Donald Trump’s cuts to UN spending give Beijing a chance to “fill the political vacuum”. And she warned: “China will be writing the rules”. President Trump’s new UN envoy, Mike Waltz, has promised to “work with Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio to challenge [China’s] influence”.
China has even suggested that downsizing, if any, should target American staff.
But of course, there will be downsizing. Cash-strapped and pilloried, the UN is considering drastic action. That includes, sacking one-fifth of the secretariat’s 33,000-strong workforce and merging agencies with somewhat overlapping roles. All of this is coming to light in the UN’s 80th birthday week, when there were reminders aplenty of how desperately it’s scrambling to stay in business.
Before you ask, the UN is in business – the business of providing humanitarian aid and assistance on matters of global peace and security. As with any venture, to manage that shop, the UN does need to keep the lights on…at least during the day!
