On Thursday, March 19, the Select Committee on the CCP of the U.S. House of Representatives released its latest report, warning that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using tactics such as “financial pressure,” “placing high-level officials,” “deploying fake peacekeepers as real troops,” and “manipulating fake non-governmental organizations” to reshape and infiltrate the United Nations system, attempting to turn it into a tool to promote CCP’s ambitions.
The bipartisan committee is led by Chairman John Moolenaar of the Republican Party and Ranking Member Ro Khanna of the Democratic Party, who have been conducting ongoing investigations into the influence of the CCP in various international organizations in recent months. Moolenaar has cautioned that the CCP is working to “reshape the international system to serve its interests.”
The committee stated that these investigative findings were based on reviews of CCP government documents, UN data, academic research, and open-source reports. The report highlights that the CCP is actively “utilizing” and “manipulating” its involvement in the UN system to steer UN decisions in favor of Beijing.
The report details that over the past two decades, China’s contribution to the regular UN budget has increased from around 2% to over 20%, making it the second-largest donor after the United States (22%).
The CCP has turned “contributions and donations” into political leverage, using financial pressure to influence UN operations. This gives the CCP greater leverage in budget negotiations and institutional priorities, particularly evident as the UN faces long-term funding shortages.
For example, in 2023, the CCP deliberately delayed UN dues, causing a liquidity crisis at the UN and freezing recruitment. This successful move forced the UN to suspend the review of human rights investigation funds for Sudan, Ukraine, and others, highlighting how the CCP intervenes in the actual operations of the UN through financial pressure.
Additionally, while boasting of being an “economic powerhouse,” the CCP enjoys privileges as a “developing country” in organizations like the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the UN Development Programme.
Through substantial voluntary core donations to the IFAD, the CCP gains internal discourse power and preferential loans. For every $1 donated, they receive $3.51 in concessional loans, redirecting international poverty alleviation funds meant to aid poor nations to support their own “rural revitalization” and Belt and Road initiatives.
The report reveals that to shape the image of a “responsible major power,” the CCP has increased its staffing at the UN by 187% over the past 20 years, from 579 to 1,664 employees.
Strategically placing these personnel in high-level decision-making positions, particularly in areas closely related to the Belt and Road Initiative, at institutions like the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The report names several Chinese UN officials who openly violate their oath of neutrality and collaborate with Beijing, such as former ICAO Secretary-General Fang LIU, who delayed action on CCP hacker group Emissary Panda’s cyberattacks against ICAO. Liu herself is also a National Committee member of the CPPCC.
Furthermore, FAO Director-General Dongyu QU delayed internal independent investigations and allegedly coerced representatives from developing countries to vote for him in his election process.
The CCP currently deploys the largest contingent of peacekeeping troops among the permanent members of the Security Council, but their deployment overlaps heavily with CCP’s overseas economic and strategic interests, particularly in Africa.
For instance, most of the peacekeeping troops are sent to South Sudan (a crucial oil hub for CCP-owned enterprises). While ostensibly for peacekeeping, in reality, the PLA is constructing external roads for CCP’s oil companies, protecting oil assets, and decreasing investment risks, skillfully packaging “unilateral military expansion” as “multilateral legitimate peacekeeping.”
This aligns with the CCP’s strategic goal in the 2015 Military Strategy White Paper of protecting strategic areas related to “overseas interests.” It primarily safeguards overseas energy resources, secure strategic channels, and protect the safety of overseas institutions, personnel, and assets.
The report discloses that at least 134 Chinese institutions with “consultative status” at the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) are controlled by the Communist United Front Work Department or intelligence agencies, functioning as “Government-Organized Non-Governmental Organizations (GONGO).”
These CCP-controlled organizations, masquerading as independent civil society entities, misuse UN passes to malignly interfere and drown out criticisms of CCP’s human rights records, injecting political influence into various UN decision-making processes.
Organizations like the CPAFFC, CCG, CEFC, CAST, CFIS, and CSHRS are identified in the report as under CCP’s control or influence, with some even designated by the U.S. government as “quasi-official entities or agents.”
As this investigation report is released, the U.S. political circles are keenly focusing on countering CCP’s encroachment on the international system. The committee urges the U.S. to seek revoking China’s “developing country” privileges, scrutinizing United Front NGOs, and coordinating with allies to confront CCP’s expanding influence in the UN.
While the CCP frequently portrays itself as a defender of “multilateralism and international cooperation.”
However, the international community is increasingly discovering CCP’s covert support to Iran, Russia, North Korea, and its clandestine aid to hacker groups, terrorist organizations, and some extreme leftist groups through funding and technological support, attacking and penetrating democratic countries like Europe and America, triggering heightened vigilance within the entire democratic camp.