The Chinese push to increase their influence in the United States and the resistance of the United States

Editor's note: Every Wednesday, the WPR newsletter and engagement editor, Benjamin Wilhelm, hosts the main China expert news and analysis of the week .

In a setback for Beijing's efforts to increase its visibility at the United Nations and other multilateral organizations, a Chinese candidate did not win a leadership competition for the intellectual property agency United Nations Wednesday. Wang Binyang’s proposal to head the World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, had been rejected by the United States because of concerns over China’s enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Fifty-five of the 83 countries of the WIPO Steering Committee voted in favor of Daren Tang, CEO of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, to become the next managing director of the organization, responsible for promoting the protection of intellectual property worldwide. . A victory for Wang, currently deputy director of WIPO, would have given Beijing what critics feared would be a "unprecedented level of influenceOn a patent system in which China and Chinese companies have a growing interest.

China already heads four of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations: the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations for the United Nations. Food and Agriculture and Industrial Development Organization. Beijing has increased its role at the United Nations in recent years, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping last year called on the country to take "An active role in driving the reform of the global governance system."

The campaign has an impact. As Chinese scholars Courtney J. Fung and Shing-Hon Lam wrote for this week's Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog, "China's growing economic power, strategic reach and foreign policy ambitions are helping to boost Beijing's increasingly active participation in the multilateral system."

But critics fear that China will use its increased weight at the United Nations to advance its own interests at the expense of the institution's liberal values. China has had success at the UN in promoting projects associated with its infrastructure development program, the Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing "also uses the United Nations system to exclude Taiwan globally as an independent player," note Fung and Lam.

And according to a Human Rights Watch report Last year, "China lobbied and warned to stifle criticism of its poor human rights" at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The monitoring group also Previously reported that China is preventing activists and non-governmental organizations from participating in United Nations forums if they speak critically of the Chinese government.

The United States took note of China's growing influence in the United States and pressured members of the WIPO Steering Committee to vote for Tang. And the The State Department also recently appointed a new special envoy who will work "to ensure the integrity of multilateral institutions", notably by "countering the malicious influences of (China) and others in the United Nations system". It was a turnaround for the administration of President Donald Trump, who scorned and snubbed multilateral organizations like the UN.

China's defeat in the WIPO leadership race has also been a triumph for the Trump administration in its broader economic struggle with Beijing. The United States accuses China of stealing intellectual property, and the issue was one of its main grievances during talks with Beijing that led to the signing of a partial trade agreement in January. Under the agreement, China is committed to better protect intellectual property.

WIPO defines intellectual property rules and oversees a patent system for which China accounts for almost half of all global patent filings. In addition to the United States, the European Union has also raised concerns about the protection of intellectual property rights by China. James Pooley, former Deputy Director General of WIPO, told the Financial Times that to put China at the head of the United Nations agency specializing in the protection of intellectual property would amount to "like naming the fox to keep the chicken coop".

Best Readings on China

How China Arms National Identity: "Beijing is in the habit of imposing its nationality on those who prefer not to have it", writes Yuan Yang, a Chinese correspondent for the Financial Times, after China recently sentenced Chinese-born Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai to 10 years in prison for "illegally providing information" to parties abroad. The court said that Gui had asked for his Chinese nationality to be reinstated in 2018, but since China does not recognize dual nationality, Gui would likely have been forced to renounce his Swedish nationality. Yuan contends that China is different from other countries that only allow citizens to hold only one nationality because it "applies this without the rule of law, and can therefore arm it to cancel claims from other states ":

"Beijing's attitude towards foreign nationals of Chinese origin, like Mr. Gui, leads us to wonder if the state considers itself to be the governor of the Chinese ethnic people wherever it may be. lies, rather than a state constrained by international law and diplomatic protocol. "

Hong Kong bookseller bookseller Lam Wing-kee stands next to a sign with a

photo by Gui Minhai, Hong Kong, June 18, 2016 (AP photo by Kin Cheung).

The media escalation between the United States and China: The Trump administration said on Monday that no more than 100 Chinese citizens will be allowed to work in the United States for five Chinese state media. The new limit, which could effectively force 60 Chinese journalists to leave the United States, is the latest step in an escalating conflict over press freedom. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement that Washington's goal was "reciprocity" in relations with China, but Steven Butler, Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists , written in foreign policy titanic retaliation is unlikely to be effective:

"Is there a precedent that no one else knows to suggest that China will respond positively and cooperatively after the United States has given it a boost by deporting up to 60 of its nationals? And that will not only tighten the screws of the foreign press body in Beijing. China only took a day to retaliate. "Now the United States has launched the game, let's play," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said on Twitter. "

In the news this week

COVID-19 outbreak: In a recent propaganda campaign, state media have welcomed China's response to the COVID-19 epidemic as a model for the world (New York Times). … China and Japan have agreed to delay Xi Jinping planned state visit to Japan next month due to the epidemic (South China Morning Post).

China-North Korea relations: The United States has charged and punished two Chinese nationals for would have helped the North Korean pirates launder about $ 100 million of stolen virtual currency (Wall Street Journal). … The Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies said in a report that North Korea was violating a 2017 United Nations Security Council resolution by export of illegal sand to China (Reuters).

American-Chinese relations: The United States accused the Chinese Navy last week of targeting a patrol aircraft with a military grade laser in the Western Pacific (Financial Times). … A Chinese cybersecurity company accused the CIA of waging an 11-year spy campaign targeting the Chinese aviation and energy sectors, scientific research organizations, Internet companies and government agencies (Reuters).

Xinjiang: According to a report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, China has transferred over 80,000 Uighur Muslims from the Xinjiang Autonomous Region to factories across the country as part of a government-led work initiative. Uighurs "work in factories that are part of the supply chains of at least 83 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors", including Apple and Nike, "under conditions that strongly suggest forced labor," said the report.

Hong Kong: Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media mogul in Hong Kong, and two other prominent pro-democracy activists were arrested on Friday for their role in the protest movement (New York Times).

National: China's cybersecurity administration recently implemented new censorship rules, raising fears of a repression of information in the midst of the COVID-19 (The Guardian) epidemic.

Cross-strait relations: Taiwanese officials said China puts pressure on the island with "provocative" air force maneuvers and spreading fake news to sow discord amid the COVID-19 epidemic (Reuters).

Benjamin Wilhelm is the editor of the WPR newsletter and engagement.