Special to WorldTribune, August 1, 2023

Commentary by Laurence F Sanford

China has undue influence on UN agencies despite being only the sixth-largest contributor to the UN’s overall budget.

Total UN Contributions 2021:

• U.S                $12.5 billion
• Germany       $6.1  “
• Sweden         $2.8  “
• Japan            $2.7  “
• U.K.               $2.0  “
• China            $2.0  “

Much ado is made of China being the UN’s second largest contributor, after the United States, in UN funding. But like much of China’s “gray zone” deception tactics in conjunction with favorable Marxist media coverage, it is second only in the Member Assessment category. In this category, the U.S. contributes $3.2 billion, and China contributes $1.8 billion. The complex formula for Member Assessments is based on gross national product, per capita income, and other criteria.

But in Voluntary Contributions, the U.S. contributes $9.2 billion, while China contributes only $175 million. The United States spends approximately $50 billion annually on foreign aid.

The U.N. agencies where China gets a bigger bang for the buck:

World Health Organization (WHO)

WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He previously served in an Ethiopian Marxist government as Health Director and then as Foreign Minister when Ethiopia received millions of dollars in aid from China.

Tedros became the Director-General of WHO primarily through the influence of China.

Tedros is an example of “elite capture,” where an individual is corrupted by Chinese money, access, or favors. In turn, the recipient will return favors toward China.

A shameful display from the WHO demonstrating its subservience to the CCP occurred in 2020 when Taiwan was raising red flags about a mysterious disease in Wuhan. The World Health Assembly (WHA), the forum through which the World Health Organization is governed by its 194 member states, kept Taiwan at arm’s length and refused to allow Taiwan to participate in the global response to the Wuhan Virus (Covid-19).

Tedros was also responsible for the WHO report that absolved China’s Wuhan Lab from spreading the Wuhan Virus. WHO followed the CCP line on the pandemic in stating that bats, not the Wuhan lab, were the source of the pandemic. The report was shallow at best since the CCP did not allow WHO full access to the Wuhan Lab. Furthermore, WHO promoted the CCP policies of facemasks and lockdowns, which have been proven ineffective and have cost millions of lives and billions of dollars in world economies.

Lives were shattered, education suffered, suicides increased, and the social fabric was sundered due to the lockdowns.

Peacekeeping Operations

China provides more personnel for peacekeeping operations than any other permanent member of the Security Council. These contributions enable China to exert diplomatic and political influence globally.

China was the tenth-largest overall contributor of peacekeeping personnel, with approximately 2200 as of December 2022. Nonpermanent members Bangladesh, India, and Nepal each had contributed nearly triple the number of peacekeepers.

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

Led by Secretary General Fang Liu, the ICAO advanced policies dictated by the CCP, including new air routes in violation of ICAO procedures.

Liu also concealed for months a hack on its computers — believed to have been launched by a Chinese hacker group — and allowed the malware to spread throughout the airline industry. An independent investigation in 2017 would conclude that the malicious software used in the attack had been identified by ICAO antivirus software a year earlier, but the computers still had not been disinfected. The ICAO information technology team reached out to a New York-based IT agency affiliated with the UN to analyze the attack but then rejected its expertise.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

The IPCC is the UN body for assessing climate change science. It also is in the hip pocket of the CCP.

The Epoch Times (July 26-August 1, 2023) reports that independent Environmental Progress found that solar panels made in China produce at least 3X more carbon emissions than the IPCC claims. No national or international studies have been conducted to verify the basis of the IPCC claim. Could it be just made-up data from the Chinese solar panel manufacturers?  97 percent of the global supply of solar wafers is made in China. The IPCC has not responded to the report.

Solar panel waste is an issue that the IPCC has not addressed. Solar panels contain heavy metals, which can be released in a cloud if the panels are shattered during disposal. Solar panels often contain lead, cadmium, antimony, and other toxic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel. To recycle a panel is $20 to $30 more expensive than burying it in a landfill.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in 2016 estimated that there were about 250,000 metric tons of solar panel waste in the world at the end of that year. IRENA projected that this amount could reach 78 million tons by 2050.

Conclusion

The CCP has manipulated the UN to promote its national agenda against the world’s common good. When Chinese nationals are elected to lead UN organizations, the CCP uses these opportunities to promote national interests. The CCP is not above intimidation or bribery to achieve its goals.

How the CCP can get away with genocide against its Muslim Uighur citizens, and not get a peep from the outside Muslim world or condemnation in the UN, is a good example of CCP influence. Meanwhile, just one person in Sweden burning a Quran generates worldwide Muslim outrage.

The CCP’s Climate Change hoax is multi-faceted. China is the world’s biggest polluter and emitter of carbon dioxide. It continues by building two coal power plants per week versus the U.S. building none. No UN condemnation of China’s pollution.

The CCP ignores the UN’s finding that China’s claims to the South China Sea are bogus. China continues to harass and intimidate air and sea traffic.

The United States needs to step up and exert its strengths in promoting the American creed of democracy, free markets, fair trade, and freedom of speech and religion. Stop funding nations that side with China and America’s enemies.

Laurence Sanford graduated from Boston College and then served in the U.S. Navy Pacific fleet from 1963 to 1966. He then served as an officer in the clandestine service of the Central Intelligence Agency for over 4 years, including a two-year assignment in Hong Kong. Mr. Sanford serves as a Senior Analyst with the American Security Council Foundation and is also President of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers — Florida Satellite Chapter.

  Global abuse: China wields outsized influence at the shamefully-subservient UN