Beijing seeks greater influence over global institutions to advance Chinese state interests at the expense of their international mandates. Photo courtesy of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in New York.
October 25 marks the 55th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China taking China’s seat at the United Nations. On that date in 1971, General Assembly Resolution 2758 transferred the seat from the Republic of China government in Taipei to Beijing. Beijing cites the resolution in support of its claim to Taiwan.
Chinese state media has linked the anniversary to Xi Jinping’s Global Governance Initiative (GGI), which calls for giving China and developing countries more say in international institutions. During UN meetings in September, Chinese Vice President Han Zheng presented the initiative as evidence of China’s commitment to the UN’s central role and described the anniversary as a new starting point for expanding China-UN cooperation.
China also plans to host a global governance forum this autumn in the Xiong’an New Area in Hebei to advance the initiative. Beijing’s record in the UN posts it already holds shows how it would use that greater influence.
In 2020, Chinese nationals headed four UN specialized agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and the UN Industrial Development Organization, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Beijing’s candidate also sought to lead the World Intellectual Property Organization that year but lost to Singapore’s Daren Tang.
China’s Qu Dongyu won 168 of 182 votes for a second term as FAO director-general, running through July 2027. As of April 2026, another Chinese national, Li Junhua, headed the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Chinese officials have used their UN positions to serve Beijing’s interests. Wu Hongbo, who led that department from 2012 to 2017, blocked Uyghur activist Dolkun Isa from attending a UN forum. He later told Chinese state television, “We have to strongly defend the motherland’s interests,” according to testimony before the commission. UN standards of conduct, however, state that international civil servants “should not seek nor should they accept instructions from any Government.”
Taiwan has been a frequent target. Under Secretary-General Fang Liu, ICAO stopped inviting Taiwan to its assembly. In January 2020, as COVID-19 spread, the agency blocked Twitter users who criticized Taiwan’s exclusion, including congressional staffers. The State Department called the practice “outrageous, unacceptable, and not befitting of a UN organization.”
At the ITU, Secretary-General Houlin Zhao aligned the agency with Beijing’s commercial agenda. During the 2017 Belt and Road Forum, the ITU signed an agreement with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to help participating countries build communications networks. In 2019, amid U.S. security concerns about Huawei, Zhao said, “So far, we have not come across any evidence pointing at security concerns of the equipment.”
Outside the UN system, Chinese nationals have also held international leadership posts while retaining positions in China’s government. Meng Hongwei remained China’s vice minister of public security while serving as Interpol president. In 2018, he disappeared during a trip to China, and Beijing announced he was under investigation for bribery. Interpol accepted his resignation halfway through his four-year term. In November 2025, Interpol elected Wang Yong as its vice president for Asia. Wang concurrently serves as political commissar of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s International Cooperation Bureau.
China can also secure results through votes. In August 2022, the UN human rights office reported that abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity. On October 6, the UN Human Rights Council voted 19 to 17, with 11 abstentions, against even debating the report.
Beijing’s influence also extends to the World Health Organization. Taiwan attended the World Health Assembly as an observer from 2009 to 2016, until China blocked its participation after Taiwan’s 2016 presidential election. In May 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had “every legal power and precedent” to invite Taiwan but declined “under pressure from China.”
In his May 18, 2020, letter to Tedros, President Donald Trump cited “the World Health Organization’s alarming lack of independence from the People’s Republic of China.” Announcing on May 29 that the United States would terminate its relationship with the WHO, he noted that China paid $40 million annually, compared with roughly $450 million from the United States. Executive Order 14155, issued in January 2025, similarly stated that China had three times the U.S. population but contributed nearly 90 percent less.
Beijing has also bought its influence cheaply across the wider UN system. China is assessed 20 percent of the UN’s regular budget, second only to the United States at 22 percent. In 2024, it was the second-to-last country to pay its assessment in full, ahead only of North Korea. In July 2026, a UN official reported that China owed $428 million on the regular budget and $65 million for peacekeeping. China finally paid its regular-budget dues in full in early September.
The Global Governance Initiative calls for ending the dominance of a few countries over global governance. Yet Beijing’s record over 55 years at the UN shows how it uses its influence: to exclude Taiwan, shield Xinjiang from investigation, and advance Chinese commercial and security interests. Beijing appears to want to replace the dominance of “a few countries” with its own.
The post 55 Years at the UN: How China Uses the Posts It Holds to Further Its Policy Goals appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.