Sources: All information stated in this article is based on reliable information, and is summarized at the end of this article
The United Nations demanded that China and other countries pay more dues, and there was nothing they could do about United States, but they opened their mouths to the Chinese lions.
My Ambassador criticized and bluntly stated that this move by the United Nations was unpopular.
The United Nations demanded that China pay more than its dues
Recently, the Fifth Committee of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly opened on October 7. This Fifth Committee is, in fact, the Administrative and Budgetary Committee, which deals with the administrative and budgetary costs of the United Nations.
As we all know, the United Nations is not a charitable organization, but requires every Member State to pay its dues on time every year. However, this year's presentation of the United Nations programme plan and budget calls for the increase in the payment of more contributions by developing countries to the United Nations. This move is obviously very unreasonable.
In recent years, the amount of contributions paid by the mainland and other developing member countries has been rising, and it has tripled compared to the amount paid in 15 years.
However, it is puzzling that the proportion of contributions paid by developed countries is declining compared to the rising proportion of contributions of developing countries.
This move by the United Nations has the flavor of bullying the weak and fearing the hard, after all, United States has been in arrears for a long time and has not paid it for a long time. On the one hand, it does not urge developed countries to pay their contributions, and does not take corresponding measures to get these countries to pay their contributions. On the other hand, it has targeted relatively weak developing countries and continuously increased the proportion of contributions from these developing countries.
As a global organization, the United Nations, as an organization that avoided the recurrence of war tragedies between major powers after World War II and protected small and weak countries from aggression, has increasingly lost its original intention.
China has also responded to the United Nations' move to demand that developing countries, including China, pay more dues. The mainland's ambassador to the United Nations directly criticized it, stressing that this move was unpopular.
Our Ambassador is a direct critic of the United Nations
In this meeting, Dai Bing, the United Nations congress on the mainland, directly said: The fundamental reason for the current liquidity crisis of the United Nations is because of the long-term arrears of major countries, and United States is a typical example of this.
In April this year, some media reported that the United Nations could no longer afford to open the escalator. In order to save money, in addition to discontinuing the escalators, the Palais des Nations has also shortened the opening hours and restricted the use of equipment such as office lighting and heating. In other words, the current United Nations is indeed in a business crisis.
And this situation did not happen overnight. In fact, the arrears of United States began many years ago.
According to media reports, in 2023, United States owed more than US$600 million in dues to UNESCO. In addition to UNESCO, United States owes the World Health Organization nearly $100 million in arrears.
Taken together, the United States of these organizations owes the United Nations a sky-high amount of contributions. Imagine if those contributions were paid on time, the United Nations would not be as difficult to operate as it is now, nor would there be a liquidity crisis.
As Dai Bing, the mainland's representative to the United Nations, said, if we want to solve this problem, we must treat both the symptoms and the root causes. The moratorium on the return of budget balances to Member States was not a fundamental solution;
In addition, Dai Bing, the representative of our side, said that the preparation of the plan and budget of the United Nations programmes should reflect the leadership of Member States and reflect the reasonable demands of Member States. Therefore, priority should be given to securing resources in the field of development, balancing security and developing the field of human rights.
As for the problems faced by the United Nations all year round, such as idle resources and loss and waste of funds, strengthening management and ensuring that oversight and accountability are in place are also crucial.
There is no doubt that the advice of our representative has been very useful. If that recommendation were to be followed, the United Nations would certainly improve its business situation.
Rather than splitting the gap as is the case now, choosing to pass on the financial burden directly to developing countries. Such an approach would not only be contrary to the purpose of the United Nations, but would also be completely unpopular.
Why the United Nations has lost its original purpose?
As a product of World War II, the United Nations was founded to protect the weak and small countries of the world and to obtain the rights that every country deserves.
Objectively speaking, the United Nations did play its due role in the early years of its establishment. It disintegrated the colonial system to a certain extent, but also contributed to the independence of more countries.
In the early days of the United Nations, there were only 51 member states, but today it has grown to 193 member states. This undoubtedly illustrates the efforts made by the United Nations for peace and the achievements made to promote the independence of various countries.
But all along, because after World War II, United States was the world's largest leader, and it was also the leader of the United Nations.
With the change in attitudes towards United States, so has the business situation of the United Nations. You must know that United States, as a superpower in the world, has always been one of the main countries paying UN dues. The phenomenon of arrears in the United States began to gradually appear in the 1980s.
This is so because some of the policies and practices of the United Nations no longer implement United States will. To put it simply, the United Nations no longer listens to United States. And in order to express its dissatisfaction, the United States began to owe money. Especially during the Trump administration, the United States was even more disorganized. Arrears and withdrawal have become routine operations.
In 2011, for example, Palestine joined UNESCO as a member state. This move sparked strong dissatisfaction and backlash from the United States, and it was also in 2011 that United States stopped paying contributions to UNESCO.
It can be said that whenever the United Nations does not make a move that is in line with United States's intentions, United States will use arrears as a way to express anger.
And the operation of the United Nations is becoming more difficult, after all, the United States is the largest contributor.
Of course, from the beginning of the United Nations' prosperity and development to help weak and small countries become independent and end the colonial system, now it has difficulties in its operation, and it does not dare to challenge the big countries, but it demands that the developing countries bear a larger proportion of the payment. It also reflects changes in the international order and pattern.
At present, the first thing that the United Nations should do is to strengthen the collection of arrears and demand that these arrears countries fulfill their obligations. The second is that the contribution ratio of developed countries should be increased rather than opening their mouths to developing countries.
Failure to do so would likely lead to the loss of the hearts and minds of the United Nations, and the end result would be that the Organization would be virtually extinct.
Resources:
The representative of China: The scale of contributions of the United Nations should fully reflect the capacity of countries to pay
Completely unpaid! Senior US government official: United States owes the WHO $80 million in membership dues, not paid - Global Network
Geneva Notes|The United Nations can't afford to open the escalator just because United States is in arrears - Xinhua News Agency New Media
United States intends to return to UNESCO, with more than $600 million in arrears to be paid – Beijing News