By Augustus K. Yeung
Introduction
As the nation marks its 50th anniversary as the United Nations Security Council member, and as a responsible power following rules, China now feels obliged to be assertive, for once for a change.
As the United States has been hijacking the UN for the promotion of its aggressive foreign policies, bullying other countries such as Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and making a mess in Afghanistan, China figures that it is about time to do something.
As China is rising rapidly in recent years, it now tries to systematically stop the UN from forever falling into the self-styled "free" country's pit, and bring justice, peace and prosperity to this family of nations.
Specifically, China has now called on rich countries to shoulder "more [of the] financial burden" at the United Nations, while diplomatically blaming "one major contributor" for not paying its dues, in an apparent reference to the United States.
"Despite repeated calls by most members and the secretary general's letters to member states expressing his concerns, one major contributor still has long-time unpaid assessments, which is the main cause of the UN liquidity crisis," Chinese ambassador Zhang Jun said at the latest UN meeting to discuss regular and peacekeeping budges.
Critical Comment from Zhang on Trump Cheats
Zhan, China's permanent representative to UN, made a critical comment. His comment came as Washington tried to refund some of the UN agencies that saw cuts under former US President Donald Trump.
In his speech, US representative Patrick Kennedy acknowledged US responsibility towards the UN budget while calling for greater scrutiny of demands.
"China calls on member states, especially large contributors, to fulfill their financial obligations on time, in full and without conditions," Zhang said at the meeting on Monday, adding China was 'always highly responsible' in paying its assessed contributions in a timely manner."
(Assessments refer to the share of UN expenses to be borne by member states as determined by the General Assembly. Members may also make voluntary contributions.)
Three Members' Financial Contributions
The US is the single largest contributor to the UN's budget, paying 22 percent of its annual running costs or around US$3 billion, as well as 25 percent of its peacekeeping operation costs of about US$6 billion a year.
China has been second on the list since 2019, paying around 12 percent of running costs, with Japan third, paying 8.5 percent.
(As the world's top two economies compete on issues from security and human rights, to trade and global influence, Beijing has presented itself as an aggressive defender of multilateralism and a responsible great power as opposed to Washington.)
One Beautiful Country Two Contrasting Styles
Zhang's apparent dig came as Washington runs an annual shortfall in UN payments, after the Trump administration spitefully cut the peacekeeping budget, saying the US was "shouldering an unfair burden of the UN cost."
In stark contrast, US president Joe Biden has pledged to step up UN funding and, in his budget announced in May, earmarked UD$82.4 million for select UN arrears.
In 2019, according to figures provided by the US mission to the UN, Washington (under Trump) owed US$381 million from earlier budgets and US$674 million for the regular budget, in addition to the US$2.6 billion due for active peacekeeping missions.
China Calls on the U.S. to Show Accountability
As the UN General Assembly discussed assessment rates based on a country's capacity to pay for the 2022-2024 period, Zhang said in recent years there had been an increase in the share of developing countries, and a decrease for developed countries in the scale of assessments.
"This situation is unreasonable and not in line with the principle of 'capacity to pay'… China calls on developed countries to shoulder more financial responsibilities for the UN, and fully take into account the difficulties and concerns of developing countries," he said, according to a statement published on the UN website.
In his address, Kennedy said diplomatically that the US would urge budget discipline across the UN system and examine increasing demands for assessed contributions. "The methodology for the scale of assessments should be equitable, data-driven and grounded in the capacity to pay principle."
Conclusion
For decades in the past: The UN's power structure has been failing to reflect the realities of the day, resulting in the clout of unfair practices.
For the most part, the expert who spoke on the failings of the UN acknowledged that whether the UN would be fit for purpose in the decades to come to depend heavily on the pace with which fair-minded countries such as China leads the reform of the UN.
For the sake of humanity: The UN's finances must be sound. As one of the five UNSC members, at the UN general meeting, China responsibly offers hope to the oppressed developing nations by firing the first shot in reforming the UN through pressuring the U.S. to be financially accountable--failing that the world body's many pending humanitarian services such as poverty relief and peacekeeping activities, etc. would be severely hampered. Among many, war-torn Afghanistan is one pressing humanitarian crisis China has in mind.
It is to be expected that China, a meteoric rising nation, from now on will continue to speed up the pace of reforming the UN to reflect 21st-century geopolitical dynamics--by harnessing the wild North American hegemonic horse, because of this China had harmoniously suffered US-sanctioned injustice for decades.
The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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