CNN-News18 and India Today reported on April 17 that Emma Reilly, a former employee of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights from Ireland, revealed more evidence of “disturbing connections” between the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Chinese Communist government, as well as scandals involving the World Health Organization obeying China and China bribing two General Assembly Presidents.
Reilly’s evidence was submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the United Kingdom Parliament, which held its first hearing on the investigation on April 16. According to the written evidence publicly disclosed by the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, as part of a multilateral system China used the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to serve its national interests by providing “dangerous benefits” to the Chinese government on a broader scale.
What are the key contents of the evidence provided by Reilly?
First, China bribed two United Nations General Assembly Presidents.
The report cited evidence collected by Reilly, stating: “During the two-year Sustainable Development Goals negotiation process (2013-2015), the Chinese government bribed two General Assembly Presidents, and these two Presidents ultimately supervised the negotiation process, significantly influencing the final text submitted to the General Assembly.”
This brings to mind October 2015 when the U.S. Department of Justice formally indicted six suspects, including former General Assembly President John Ashe, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference member and Macau real estate tycoon Ng Lap Seng, President of the Global Sustainable Development Foundation Sheri Yan, and CFO Heidi Park on charges of accepting multiple bribes.
The indictment alleged that John Ashe, who served as the President of the 68th General Assembly, accepted more than $1.3 million in bribes from multiple Chinese businessmen, including Ng Lap Seng, between 2011 and December 2014 in exchange for using his official powers to support China’s business interests.
During the January 2016 trial, Park became the first to plead guilty, admitting to making secret payments to Ashe as an intermediary. Park’s testimony corroborated the bribery scandal involving Ashe. The Global Sustainable Development Foundation she belonged to had close ties with Chinese officials and businessmen, with its founder and President Sheri Yan’s father being a renowned artist, and her husband being a former Australian diplomat to Beijing and Washington. Well-connected Sheri Yan’s network includes figures like former Australian Prime Minister Howard and Lu Kewen, among other political and business figures from Australia, the U.S., and other countries.
Ng Lap Seng, involved in the case, also channeled money to the U.S. Democratic Party and had close ties with high-ranking Chinese officials. In 2018, he was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $1 million. After returning to Macau in 2021, he was sentenced to another 15 years in prison for land bribe crimes.
Evidently, one of the General Assembly Presidents bribed by China, as mentioned by Reilly, was Ashe, while the other was likely Ugandan former Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa, who served as the General Assembly President in 2014. He visited Beijing before taking office, presumably obtaining recognition and support from the Chinese Communist Party. In July 2015, he visited Beijing again as the General Assembly President and was warmly received.
Secondly, China coerced the World Health Organization.
Reilly also provided evidence of China pressuring the WHO to edit out content that could suggest the possibility of the coronavirus (Wuhan virus, CCP virus) originating from a lab leak. The report stated: “Reports by the WHO and the United Nations Environmental Programme on the origins of the coronavirus have been edited to reduce the mention of the possibility of a laboratory leak.”
Looking back, on April 21, 2020, a WHO spokesperson at a routine press briefing at the UN Geneva office stated that the organization was currently fighting two “pandemics,” the COVID-19 pandemic and the “infodemic.” Regarding recent misinformation circulating on media and social platforms regarding the origins of the coronavirus, the spokesperson stated that all known evidence indicated that the virus originated from animals, not through artificial intervention or manipulation in a lab.
On February 9, 2021, the WHO issued a statement proclaiming that the COVID-19 pandemic could not have originated from a lab leak in Wuhan. Coming to such a conclusion without a comprehensive investigation in China clearly suggests that the WHO was under pressure from the Chinese Communist Party.
At the time, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo questioned the WHO’s assessment of the virus origins, insisting that there was “significant evidence” showing that the virus originated in a lab in China. Pompeo stated on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” program: “I’ve seen this headline before, and I must say that we left the World Health Organization because we started to believe it was corrupt. It has become politicized; it bows to General Secretary Xi Jinping of China. I hope their announcement today is not due to this situation (referring to being influenced by the CCP).”
Thirdly, officials from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights leaked information about human rights activists to China.
Reilly also indicated that China managed to have the head of the Human Rights Council Branch at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (a French person) secretly provide information on Chinese dissidents and human rights activists attending United Nations Human Rights Council meetings. The report stated, “Upon the UN Secretariat’s advance provision of lists of representatives to China, the representatives reported that their families were harassed by police, forced to call and tell them to stop advocating. They were arbitrarily arrested, detained during the conference, disappeared, arbitrarily sentenced to long-term imprisonment, subjected to torture, while Uighurs were detained in concentration camps.”
Evidence shows that “in some cases, their families died during detention. At least one person listed by China only attended one external event but died in detention upon returning to China. At least once, the Chinese government issued an Interpol red notice for a non-governmental representative.”
Fourthly, the United Nations Secretary-General chooses to remain “silent.”
Reilly also pointed fingers at UN Secretary-General Guterres, claiming that a “self-censorship” extends to him too, avoiding discussion of certain issues because it benefits China. In one of her tweets, Reilly wrote, “When he fired me, he knew he broke his own rules.”
Fifth, China presented secret conditions to the United Nations.
Reilly revealed that China presented a secret condition to United Nations agencies, stating that the funds provided by China could not be used by countries that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
The evidence disclosed by Reilly, including bribery of UN officials by China, threats to the WHO to erase the narrative of the virus originating from a lab in Wuhan, persecution of Chinese human rights activists, highlights the shocking revelations and once again proves the previous claims of China infiltrating and covertly manipulating the United Nations. The United Nations is turning into a tool for the Chinese Communist Party.
In fact, as early as 2013, Reilly had made accusations against the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations. In a letter to senior U.S. diplomats and members of Congress, she stated, “The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is apparently continuing to advance information to China in advance, disclosing which human rights workers will be attending the meeting in Geneva.”
At that time, Fox News obtained a copy of Reilly’s complaint letters, one of which showed that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights provided names of dissenters to China. The letter also mentioned that some targeted activists were already U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
In 2020, Reilly once again disclosed to the media that the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Switzerland continued to provide China with lists and information on human rights activists critical of its regime.
It seems that the misconduct of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations has a long history. However, Reilly’s several disclosures did not seem to restrain the Chinese Communist Party and some United Nations officials but rather led to her own dismissal. Now, by directly providing numerous pieces of evidence to the UK Parliament and having them disclosed, especially amidst increasing efforts by the U.S. and Europe to counter China, what does this signify? It implies that the West is increasingly exposing the evil deeds of China, rallying more forces of justice to address China’s challenges.