Thread by @anderscorr

"The sooner #China was included into the international community, the earlier it would learn to play along with international norms, the argument went. But, China’s current measures indicate otherwise. International norms are the ones being played." thediplomat.com/2020/04/how-ch…

"China’s attempts to make the @UN a tool for achieving its hegemonic ambition would erode the institution’s trustworthiness from within and render international cooperation parochial."

"China’s approach to international cooperation would defeat the UN’s purpose to settle distributional conflicts since, very soon, other stakeholders would realize that cooperation is a cloak for advancing China’s national interests."

The authors: Dr. Alan H. Yang is Executive Director at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (@taef_tw). Tung Cheng-Chia (@TungChengChia) is an Assistant Research Fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation. Follow them!

#China is now the biggest contributor of @UN #Peackeeping forces, yet the #CCP doesn't support the #UN's principles of democracy and human rights (see the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights). 🤔chinapower.csis.org/china-un-missi…

"Between 1990 and 2008, China sent troops to #Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (#DRC), #Liberia, #Sudan, and #Lebanon. All of these locations hold geostrategic significance for China as well as valuable natural resources." -CSIS chinapower.csis.org/china-un-missi…

"China’s largest peacekeeping commitment – by a wide margin – is in South #Sudan, where China has provided ... 1,031 peacekeeping troops. China has a stake in #SouthSudan’s oil resources, and in April 2019 increased its imports of Sudanese #oil from 10k to 30k bpd." -CSIS

How does #China get its way at the @UN? Carrots and sticks. To pressure signatories of a #UK-lead statement on #Uyghurs in October 2019, the #CCP threatened not to give #Austria land for its Beijing embassy, and cancelled a bilateral event with #Albania. economist.com/china/2019/12/…

The #UK's representative at the @UN tweeted about China's pressure tactics against signatories of the #Uyghur statement in October.

https://twitter.com/AmbassadorAllen/status/1189317618693541888

China has two main aims at the @UN according to @TheEconomist: 1) Keep out "interference" in its domestic affairs, i.e., ensure its ability to violate human rights at will; and 2) Insert Xi Jinping thought into UN policies to make Chinese policies UN policies.

In 2017 #China got the @UN to cut a job that ensured that all of its programs and agencies promote #HumanRights. This was one of many moves with #Russia to cut human rights out of the UN. hrw.org/news/2017/06/0…

On April 1 (not a sick April Fool's joke, unfortunately), China's diplomat was appointed to the @UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. He will get to select UN special rapporteurs on free speech, arbitrary detention, etc. Fox guards the hens. unwatch.org/chinaunhrc/

“Allowing China’s oppressive and inhumane regime to choose the world investigators on freedom of speech, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances is like making a pyromaniac the town fire chief.” - @HillelNeuer @UNWatch. Please follow them.

#China's officials run four @UN organizations, including the @FAO (food/ag), @ITU (telecom), @ICAO (aviation), and @UNIDO (industrial development). They use the ITU to push Huawei's #5G, and ICAO to try and keep #Taiwan out of the loop on all matters related to aviation.

In November, #China #Russia and #NorthKorea sponsored an "internet sovereignty" resolution at the #UNGA that legitimizes their online censorship. It passed 88-58. axios.com/russia-china-u…

.@DrTedros hasn't just supported #China on #COVID19. In 2017 he supported #China's #BRI and even what China is calling a "Health Silk Road". China has invested heavily in Tedros' country, #Ethiopia, and China supported his WHO candidacy, so he owes them. politico.com/news/magazine/…

The #USA has pulled money and/or leadership out of the UN Human Rights Council, WHO, and UNESCO (culture). berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/posts/as-the-u…

Some argue that the #USA withdrawal from some @UN agencies creates a power vacuum into which China can step. Partly true in the case of withdrawing leadership. But not in the case of funding, which can be redeployed to advantage US global support for democracy and human rights.

Some who don't understand the true source of governmental legitimacy get it wrong. "In a sense China, through its resourcing of the UN, has earned a right to be heard", according to the @Guardian. theguardian.com/world/2018/sep…

The real source of legitimate governance is the vote and free speech. Even the founders of the @UN got this wrong, hoping in 1945 upon its founding that engagement would make #China and #Russia peaceful. That strategy failed, as did the League of Nations, founded in 1920.

The better strategy is to exclude aggressive autocrats from democratic organizations, including the UN, and use those organizations to compel them to democratize.

Those authoritarian governments that prove to be allies of democracy should still be included in the UN, especially if they demonstrate that engagement is working through their gradual democratization and improvement of human rights.

Democratization is critical because democracies do not go to war with each other (read abt the "democratic peace"). In a nuclear age, the importance of this cannot be overstated. Autocrats, on the other hand, are today leading arms races including of hypersonic nuclear missiles.

Read about these five basic strategies to defeat #China: jpolrisk.com/defeating-chin…