New Investigation Uncovers How China Controls Money, Personnel, and Troops at the United Nations

Today, the Select Committee on China released a new investigation uncovering how China is manipulating its position at the United Nations to undermine America's interests and advance its international ambitions. The investigation, Inside China's Strategy to Reshape the United Nations, finds that China uses monetary contributions, critical UN posts, and strategically deployed troops within UN peacekeeping forces to expand its authoritarian reach.

“The Select Committee's new investigation makes it clear that China is manipulating the United Nations for its own strategic goals. It is exploiting the UN, installing its own personnel in key posts, bankrolling initiatives to counter the United States, and deploying UN troops to secure its business interests. The Trump Administration’s strong reform agenda will hold the UN accountable and make important changes that protect our national security,” said Chairman John Moolenaar.

Outside of its monetary influence, the investigation revealed that China has strategically placed its own nationals in senior UN positions where they can advance China’s interests abroad. China’s monetary contributions and high-level personnel placements also allow it to influence the placement of peacekeeping troops. These deployments serve multiple purposes: operational experience for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and securing areas where Chinese companies have invested.

The Select Committee’s investigation also uncovered that China uses Government-Organized Non-Governmental Organizations (GONGOs)—a known part of the CCP's United Front—to advance its agenda within the UN. As the Select Committee's 2023 United Front 101 memo detailed, the United Front works as "a unique blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations” used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to “shape its political environment, including to influence other countries’ policy toward the PRC and to gain access to advanced foreign technology."

The investigation also made several policy recommendations, including:

• For the U.S. government to continue pressing the United Nations to return to its core principles of the United Nations Charter and rein in bureaucratic bloat, pare back mission creep, and end efforts to advance polarized ideological projects that stray from the UN’s mandate.
• Maintain ongoing efforts to hold the UN system accountable in instances where it has been co-opted to undermine U.S. and allied interests, including by China.
• Lead a coordinated effort to reassess China’s status as a “developing country” across numerous UN agencies.
• Require the Secretary of State and the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations to submit an annual report on China’s actions and attempts to place Chinese nationals in leadership positions at the United Nations.

Read the full report here.