At a Capitol Hill hearing chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) today, a panel of global experts sounded the alarm on the often overlooked yet growing malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the United Nations (UN).

            “The Chinese Communist Party is an unelected, highly deceptive, and unimaginably cruel political entity—a dictatorship—that rules by force, torture and coercion and stands credibly accused of genocide and a plethora of human rights abuses,” said Smith, the Chairman of the House Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations Subcommittee.

            “The CCP does not just seek to dominate the international rules-based order, it seeks to replace it,” said Smith, who also serves as Chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and has chaired over 100 congressional hearings on China’s egregious human rights abuses to date.

            “Under Xi Jinping, the CCP has mastered the art of subverting the international rules-based order through its involvement at the UN—and I am deeply concerned that the Biden Administration is not taking sufficient action to stop it,” said Smith, who noted the U.S. contributed approximately $18 billion to the UN system in 2022, amounting to 90 times more in voluntary contributions than China.

            Smith’s hearing, entitled “The Chinese Communist Party’s Malign Influence at the United Nations—It’s Getting Worse,” included expert testimony from Ambassador Andrew Bremberg, the President Emeritus of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and Ambassador Kelley Currie, the Former U.S. Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

            “As the U.S. Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, I saw firsthand how China expands its influence, and actively bends international norms to fit Beijing’s malign interest, at times specifically challenging the Western international order established by the U.S. and our allies following World War II,” said Ambassador Bremberg.

            “China has actively sought to place Chinese nationals in key positions within the UN system, including specialized agencies, to quietly change the status quo,” Bremberg continued. “Using these leadership positions, the CCP has been more proactive in pushing for the adoption of resolutions and norms that reflect its world view.”

            “As the largest funder of the UN system, the United States must take a harder look at where our funding is going, what is being done with it, and how China is leveraging the institutions we support to advance its pernicious authoritarian agenda,” said Ambassador Currie.

            “Among the biggest structural problems—and one that China has taken full advantage of—is the fact that the UN keeps expanding its agenda even as it struggles to manage core tasks with a minimum level of competence,” Currie continued. “Pro-rights countries must realize they can only realign the UN’s current terrible incentive structures by sending a clear message across the entire system that China’s abuses have consequences.”

            Smith, who has been targeted with sanctions by the Chinese government and banned from China for his tireless advocacy and legislative work to hold the CCP to account for its atrocities, strongly opposed China’s accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO) with his vote in the House and by chairing several hearings including in 1999—China, Human Rights and the WTO—and  in 2011—Ten Years in the WTO: Has China Keep its promises?

            “China deploys its economic leverage through development assistance and investments linked to its Belt and Road Initiative to gain the support of other UN member states, especially developing countries. This can translate into backing for China's positions on contentious issues or in elections for UN bodies — and results in dangerous debt traps across the globe for Beijing to exploit.”

            “The U.S. played an instrumental role in bringing the Chinese regime into these systems and allowing Beijing to create a bubble of exceptionalism around its conduct,” Currie said. “As a result, the U.S. has a heavy obligation to lead the effort to repair the damage to the system and strengthen its resilience against Beijing’s assault.”

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