China ramps up push for more UN jobs

The United Nations has proposed cutting 20% of the secretariat’s 33,000-strong workforce, as it faces the prospect of unprecedented funding cuts from the organization’s largest financial contributor: the United States. But the U.N.’s second-largest financial contributor, China, has been stepping up demands for more jobs, at least for Chinese nationals. In recent months, Chinese diplomats have demanded the U.N. find more jobs, at least for its own nationals, and consider shrinking the American workforce at the U.N. to reflect its dwindling financial contributions to the world body, according to several U.N. officials and diplomats. Any job cuts undertaken in response to the withdrawal of U.S. funding should fall heaviest on American nationals, China has argued. “They are approaching about senior posts,” one U.N. staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Devex in a phone interview. “And they have been quite candid about saying ‘we are the second largest contributor and we pay our bills in full and on time.’” China does pay its bills in full, but it has recently begun a practice of paying late in the year, contributing to the U.N. cash crisis. “For what it’s worth,” the official added, “they are not doing much different from what other states do, but they are more overt about it. They don’t really dance around about stuff like this.” In Washington, both Democrats and Republicans view China’s effort to broaden its representation as a threat to U.S. influence at the United Nations. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat who serves as ranking member in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the Trump administration’s financial cuts to the U.N., combined with its withdrawal from some U.N. agencies, have provided an opportunity for China to fill the political vacuum. “The Chinese Communist Party must be very pleased at our efforts,” she said at a nomination hearing for Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the U.N. “They continue making long-term investments at the United Nations and international organizations, not only through contributions, but by placing more Chinese nationals in key roles.” “China will be writing the rules,” she said. Waltz said he is mindful of China’s efforts to exercise greater influence over international bodies and standards, and that if he is confirmed, he will “work with Secretary [of State Marco] Rubio to challenge its influence.” “I take your point,” he told Shaheen. “They’re also pushing their folks at mid and lower levels, and we need to compete in that space. Certainly, our counter-China efforts, those will all be top of mind.” For years, China was largely treated as a developing nation and billed accordingly, even as its economy came to eclipse those of some of the largest U.N. funders, such as Japan and Germany. In 1995, China paid only 0.72% of the U.N.’s regular budget. But its share of the U.N.’s administrative and peacekeeping budgets has been creeping up, making it the second largest contributor this year, covering just over 20% of the U.N.’s $3.7 billion regular budget and 23.78% of peacekeeping costs, which approached $5.4 billion in the 2025-2026 fiscal year. In contrast, the U.S. is charged 22% of the regular budget, down from nearly 40% at the U.N.’s founding, and around 27% of peacekeeping costs — though the U.S. Congress has imposed 25% on U.S. contributions to U.N. peacekeeping operations. Japan, meanwhile, has seen its share of the U.N. regular budget drop from nearly 20% in 1999 to 6.93% currently, while Germany’s share has fallen from nearly 10% in 1999 to 5.69% currently. “[The Chinese] are straightforward about the fact that, if the U.S. fails to pay its assessed contributions, China should be getting an even bigger share of top jobs,” said Richard Gowan, the U.N. representative with the International Crisis Group. Still, he added, “aid officials are disappointed that China isn’t offering the UN great wads of cash to compensate for U.S. cuts. But Beijing does not need to. If the U.S. and Europeans retreat on aid, China simply has to wait and its influence grows by default.” China still contributes very little to the U.N. humanitarian agencies, but its growing financial standing at headquarters has made its demands for a broader role harder to ignore. According to the U.N. calculations, China was considered underrepresented as of December 2023, with 137 nationals on staff, including one undersecretary-general, Li Junhua, a former senior Chinese diplomat who heads up the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and no nationals at the assistant secretary-general level. By contrast, the U.S., which the U.N. also considers underrepresented, had 378 U.N. staffers, including two undersecretary-generals and five assistant secretary-generals. But China has far outpaced the U.S. in promoting entry-level positions for Chinese nationals. Between 2022 and 2023, according to U.N. figures published last year, China accounted for 773 interns, more than any other country, and 70 junior professional officers, or JPOs, which are government-funded entry-level jobs that can set a candidate up for future employment at the United Nations. In the same period, the U.S. accounted for 532 interns and only 26 JPOs. In July, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced the appointment of a Chinese national, Guang Cong, a former Chinese Foreign Ministry official with more than two decades at the U.N., as special envoy to the Horn of Africa, making him the second U.N. undersecretary-general from China. Chinese nationals also hold senior U.N. posts outside the secretariat, including the top job at the Food and Agriculture Organization. A senior Chinese national, Haoliang Xu, was recently appointed acting administrator of the U.N. Development Programme, though it's unlikely he will get the job permanently, as China contributes little to the development agency’s budget. “China, particularly at the staff level, continues to be underrepresented in U.N. agencies,” said Stewart Patrick, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “This slashing of funding for the United Nations will conceivably leave China in the position of being the U.N.’s major funder, and so on — historical precedent, of course — that should translate into a greater ability, and greater leverage and legitimacy, to occupy more seats within U.N. agencies.” “This only increases China’s leverage in multilateral institutions, and it legitimates the argument that it is a defender of multilateralism,” he added. But China has nowhere near the same presence in the top ranks of U.N. humanitarian and technical agencies as the U.S., which holds the top jobs at the World Food Programme, UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration, and the International Telecommunications Union. And some U.N. experts say China has put forward credible candidates, citing the appointment of Cong, who has served in U.N. missions in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sudan, and South Sudan. “Whatever moves Beijing made on his behalf he has a solid reputation both in the region and in the UN system as a quality international official. He is quite unusual, as a Chinese national with real experience in the UN peace and security system. Most people I have asked about his appointment seem to think he deserved the new job,” said Gowan via email. In May, China signaled its intention to fill the vacuum left by the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization, pledging $500 million in assistance over the next five years and replacing the U.S. as the health agency’s largest donor. Some experts doubt that China has an ambition, let alone the financial resources, to supplant the U.S. as the leader of the multilateral system. “The U.S. departure creates an opportunity for Beijing, but the question is whether Beijing wants to fill that gap,” said Courtney Fung, associate professor at Macquarie University in Australia. The Chinese are “selectively pursuing opportunities,” she said, but they are often targeting obscure posts, such as auditing departments or membership credential committees, that are not “eye-grabbing” but offer a chance to exercise influence behind the scenes. “I don’t think you’re going to see them saying, ‘Oh, the Americans have withdrawn from this agency, we will now take on the funding, because the expectations are high,’” she said. “You have to be able to come up with the idea, you have to be able to fund it, and you have to be able to organize and coordinate it.” It’s a lot easier, she said, for the Chinese “to be critical and not to have to have a solution.” China’s growing financial burden at the U.N., meanwhile, may bring Beijing closer to Washington on a critical matter where their interests converge. “The Chinese may see financial issues as a rare area for cooperation with the U.S. at the U.N.,” Gowan told Devex. “I think both the two big payers would like to see their shares of assessed contributions shrink. And they could team up to demand reductions when the scale of assessments comes up for renewal.” He added that “European diplomats fret that the Chinese and Americans could launch a pincer move to lower their own contributions to the UN, and make EU members and other middle-sized economies stump up more.” The U.S. retreat has provided China an opportunity to present itself as a champion of the U.N., its besieged development agenda, and multilateralism more broadly, and to portray the U.S. as a threat to it. “As the most universal, representative, and authoritative intergovernmental organization, the U.N. has played over the past eight decades an important role in maintaining international peace and promoting common development,” China’s U.N. ambassador, Fu Cong, said in a meeting on the UN80 Initiative. “But at the same time, due to the withholding of funds by the largest contributor, the operation and effectiveness of the organization are facing serious challenges.” “​It is imperative to defend and uphold the authority of the U.N. Reform is aimed at strengthening, not weakening the organization,” he added. “Reform should be focused on prioritizing development in terms of mechanisms and resources, to ensure that development is at the center of the U.N. agenda.” But China has faced some obstacles, particularly in peacekeeping, where it contributes more blue helmets than the four other permanent members of the Security Council — France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — combined. “We run into language skills, particularly in the military,” said one U.N. official. “In every country in the world, senior officers speak English. This is not necessarily the case in China.”