When not alienating America’s closest trading partners, threatening to take over Greenland, Gaza and the Panama Canal, slapping China with tariffs and decimating the US$40 billion foreign aid programme, US President Donald Trump has targeted the United Nations – handing Beijing a unique opportunity to greatly expand its global reach as it assumes the month-long Security Council presidency.
“I’ve always felt that the UN has tremendous potential,” Trump said as, with great flourish, he signed an executive order on February 4 to review all contributions and US ties to the UN. “It’s not living up to that potential … They’ve got to get their act together.”
While UN bloat and mismanagement are no secret, Trump’s delight in running roughshod over institutions and well-crafted policy threatens to undermine decades of US “soft power”, the ability to convince rather than coerce other countries.
Within days of returning to power, Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the UN World Health Organization (WHO); the Paris Agreement on climate; the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC); the UN Relief and Works Agency supporting Palestinian refugees; and the UN-inspired International Criminal Court (ICC) – as well as put the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) on notice.
“It is important for all countries to support the multilateral system with the United Nations at its centre,” Wang said, slamming “the law of the jungle” in a knock at Washington.
China’s long-standing multilateralism rhetoric has gained new traction even among traditional US allies, analysts said – less because of any shift in Beijing’s often muscular policies than Trump’s heavy-handed reboot.
“China doesn’t have to do anything to look like the good guy,” said Jeremy Chan, a Eurasia Group senior analyst. “All China has to do is come to the presidency, defend it and come out with some platitudes. And the US will be conspicuous in its absence.”
