Communist China has exploited United Nations subsidiary organizations, such as the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, for years in pushing Chinese strategic goals and objectives through relentless information and influence warfare. These efforts attempt to shield Beijing and its allies from human rights scrutiny by misdirecting attention away from their transgressions, to dilute international human rights standards by which nations are measured, and to promote a state-centric governance model for “guaranteeing” human rights around the world.
The communists routinely use financial inducements (e.g., Belt and Road Initiative projects), diplomatic pressure, and disinformation campaigns to influence other nations to align with Chinese interests at the UN.
Let us examine their latest gambit with the UNHRC.
THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
The purpose of the UNHRC is to promote and protect human rights globally, investigate and report on human rights abuses around the world, encourage compliance with international human rights law, and periodically conduct peer reviews of UN member states’ human rights records. It was established in 2006 to replace the UN Commission on Human Rights, which had been in existence since 1946. The reconstituted body was repurposed to correct the politicization of its predecessor, whose membership and leadership frequently included some of the worst human rights abusers on the planet.
There are 47 members of the UNHRC that are elected for three-year terms by the UN General Assembly. Communist China has been a continuous member since 2014 despite longstanding accusations by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, and other independent organizations of cultural genocide being waged against Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other ethnic and religious minority groups in China. The fact that China was elected to the Council at all is a clear indication of the effectiveness of China’s influence campaign among UN member nations.
CHICOM EXPLOITATION OF THE UNHRC
As discussed here, China’s objectives at the UN in general are “to advance a vision in which China is immune from criticism, individual rights protections do not trump sovereignty, the international order has a diminished role for liberal democratic powers and scrutiny of human rights conduct, and China’s policies are seen as consistent with human rights law.”
Beijing uses the UNRHC to promote China’s state-centric model of human rights that prioritizes “development” and “non-interference” over individual civil and political rights – in short, the classical Marxist elevation of the state (“the common good”) over the rights of individual human beings. Their objective over time is to convince a majority of other nations to accept China’s crackpot state-centric definition of human rights over traditional international norms.
A good example of China prioritizing development and non-interference over individual civil and political rights was its sponsorship and successful adoption of the UNHRC resolution 41/19 entitled “The Contribution of Development to the Enjoyment of All Human Rights” in July 2019. The resolution discusses economic growth and state-led initiatives as central to human rights enjoyment while promoting Xi-like fuzzy slogans of “mutually beneficial cooperation” and “dialogue” between states as opposed to any specific human rights accountability mechanisms like investigations or sanctions for violations. It’s all about collective goals, as opposed to individual freedoms and liberties which are the core of Western concepts of human rights. It should be noted that Western concepts emphasize individual autonomy, liberty, and protection from state overreach, which is exactly the inverse of how the Chinese communists seek to redefine “human rights” with the state in full control.
China routinely uses its influence within the “Like-Minded Group“ (LMG), a bloc of approximately 17 authoritarian states at the UN, to block or water down proposed UNHRC resolutions targeting its human rights record. A primary objective is to thwart any UNHRC efforts to investigate Uyghur-related civil rights issues in East Turkmenistan (Chinese: Xinjiang).
In 2022, Amnesty International and the Financial Times reported that a proposed resolution to investigate ChiCom abuses in Xinjiang failed due to Chinese lobbying of African and Asian states, with China offering economic Belt and Road Initiative incentives to obtain the necessary votes. Eritrea was one of those Belt-Road beneficiaries after a visit by the Chinese foreign minister in January 2022 as reported here. With credible reports from the BBC and elsewhere indicating that China has held over a million Uyghurs and others in “concentration camps with Chinese characteristics,” the defeat of this resolution was a travesty and an indication of just how useless the UNHRC has become through Chinese influence.
THE LATEST AFFRONT
In its continuing efforts to pursue acceptance of the communists’ state-centric model of human rights on the world stage, on 6 October, Beijing submitted a draft resolution to the 60th session of the UNHRC which was adopted without a vote. The resolution focused “on promoting and protecting economic, social and cultural rights within the context of addressing inequalities,” according to state-run Global Times [URL: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202510/1345081.shtml ].
In the GT article, Chinese Ambassador Chen Xu, China’s permanent representative to the UN Office in Geneva, discussed the resolution and called for “strengthening multilateralism and international cooperation” and “increasing investment in economic, social and cultural rights.” The usual meaningless communist sloganeering without a whiff of consideration for traditional individual human rights like freedom of speech, religion, and assembly that are anathema to the ChiComs.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
China continues to undermine and thwart the UN Human Rights Council from completing its assigned mission: to promote and protect human rights globally. The communists use persuasion, bribery, and coercion to prevent investigations into Chinese human rights abuses while promoting a state-centric human rights model on the world stage that subjugates individual human rights to the needs of the state (and institutionalizes persecution of citizens at the whim of the state!).
No wonder President Trump signed EO 14199, Withdrawing the United States From and Ending Funding to Certain United Nations Organizations and Reviewing United States Support to All International Organizations, that formally ended US participation in the UNHRC back in February. The specific justification was stated in Section 1: “UNHRC has protected human rights abusers by allowing them to use the organization to shield themselves from scrutiny.” The very definition of what China has been doing.
This timely EO was squarely directed at the serial human rights abuser communist China.
The end.
This article originally appeared in Stu Cvrk’s Substack. Reprinted here with permission
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