The United States freezes its contributions to WHO. The shot backfires because this only increases Beijing’s scope in the United Nations.
Donald Trump’s latest move to freeze payments to the World Health Organization (WHO) is a first-class goal. Trump complains that the WHO takes Beijing’s concerns too seriously. By weakening the Geneva organization in the greatest health crisis since its inception, he is inviting China to further expand his influence.
Successful personnel policy in the United Nations
In the past few years, the People’s Republic of China has managed to use the UN and its sub-organizations as a platform for itself. This can be seen, for example, in personnel policy. Today, four of the fifteen UN sub-organizations are headed by a Chinese person: the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Civil Aviation Organization (Icao) and the Organization for Industrial Development (Unido). No other country has more than one head of a UN organization.
It is to be welcomed that the emerging superpower is involved in multilateral forums. The problem is that the values of the Chinese Communist Party often contradict those of the United Nations. This is particularly evident in the area of human rights. In the Preamble to the UN Charter Among other things, it says that the organization is founded in the belief in “fundamental rights of man, in the dignity and value of human personality” – the Beijing regime tramples these values every day.
UN organizations do not act in a vacuum. Their policies are always an expression of the commitment and the balance of power of their member states. If Western democracies are concerned that the UN continues to stand for freedom and human rights, then they must stand up to the Xi Jinping autocratic regime. The United States has long held the leading role in the democratic camp. Trump has said goodbye.
What this means is shown in the UN Human Rights Council, from which the United States left Radau in June 2018. China, on the other hand, cleverly exploits the Council’s rules. A few days ago, Beijing even managed to place a representative on a commission that proposes the experts to investigate human rights violations. The communist regime will thus have a strong influence on who investigates violations of freedom of speech or arbitrary arrests on behalf of the UN. In China, the expression of opinion is sharply censored and people disappear again and again without a trace in the security apparatus.
China will step into the breach
WHO experts have long criticized that the organization is too dependent on voluntary contributions, which are often tied to specific projects. This makes them vulnerable to the influence of member countries, but also of foundations and private companies. Trump uses his mallet method to illustrate the problem: if he cancels the voluntary contributions to the WHO, the decision of a single man will bring entire programs for world health to a standstill.
Today China pays less voluntary contributions to the WHO than Switzerland. Beijing is unlikely to be asked twice to fill the vacuum created by the US being sidelined. Other democratic countries would do well to step in first. It is not a huge amount: the WHO’s regular budget is just $ 2.5 billion a year. The coronavirus pandemic shows that the world needs a strong and transparently functioning keeper of world health. To do this, the WHO must be reformed and improved. For it to be able to perform its tasks, however, it also needs stable funding that is not dependent on the whims of individual politicians.
