How China Is Taking Over International Organizations, One Vote at a Time

China's show of strength was just the latest diplomatic triumph in Beijing's drive to sway the system of international organizations in its direction.

Gaining influence at the U.N. permits China to stifle international scrutiny of its behavior at home and abroad. In March, Beijing won a seat on a five-member panel that selects U.N. rapporteurs on human-rights abuses-officials who used to target Beijing for imprisoning more than a million Uighurs at so-called re-education camps in Xinjiang.

In July, the administration began withdrawing from the World Health Organization, saying the U.N. agency's deference to China at the outset of the pandemic allowed the virus to spread. Many U.S. allies say that abandoning the field by leaving organizations like the WHO offers China a strategic gift.

China has had its own stumbles: After placing one of its top law-enforcement officials as president of Interpol, it detained him in 2018 and later convicted him on corruption charges-underscoring how Chinese officials serving in international organizations remain under Beijing's control.

In 2018, it contributed $1.3 billion to the U.N. system, a fraction of the $10 billion annual commitment from the U.S. Instead, China has leveraged loans and other assistance to dozens of developing nations in Africa, the Pacific and elsewhere to create voting blocs and defeat Western-backed candidates and proposals at the U.N. "Unfortunately there's a real threat that China is going to use multilateral institutions to advance their own initiatives and their own values as compared to the values of the United States," said Sen. Todd Young, who last year introduced a bill to investigate Beijing's influence.

To the Europeans, China is a danger because Beijing seeks to upend the rules-based international order, which, they say, Mr. Trump also threatens to do.

China leapfrogged the U.S. last year as the top source of international patents filed with WIPO, largely because international investors like to file from China, where rates are cheaper and where locally issued patents offer more protection.
 

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