Inside China's Strategy to Reshape the United Nations

The investigation 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 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.