United Nations, Jan 22: US Senators and the nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations have raised concerns about China’s growing influence at the world body through the use of money to get votes and a strong push to put more of its nationals in key jobs.
“Many senators are raising this deep concern about CCP’s [Chinese Communist Party] inroads,” Elise Stefanik, President Donald Trump’s nominee for US Permanent Representative – a cabinet-level post – said on Tuesday.
“It’s no question”, she said, “that the CCP has made strong inroads. We need to have strong American leadership working with our allies to push back on this”.
Washington has to make “a significant effort to try to peel off” the votes of the Global South in the General Assembly from China, she said.
The China factor came up when Stefanik, a foreign policy hawk who was a Republican member of the House of Representatives, appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington for a hearing on her appointment.
The Permanent Representative’s post, like many senior administration jobs, needs the Senate’s approval.
Stefanik said she would project Trump’s ‘America First’ policy at the UN.
When Senator Pete Ricketts complained about the “mismanagement, corruption, rot” at the UN and the need for reforms, Stefanik had agreed with him that US contribution to the UN, which is 22 per cent of its budget, should be a “key tool for us to demand reforms and transparency”. (IANS)
