China’s top diplomat made thinly veiled jabs at President Donald Trump’s foreign policy from the United Nations, using an address to criticize the US war on Iran and the administration’s approach to the global organization.
“Any unilateral military actions that circumvent the council’s mandate are unacceptable,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Tuesday at a Security Council meeting he chaired to discuss the UN charter as well as international peace and security.
The minister spoke less than two weeks after Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, where the US president received a stern warning on Taiwan and scant help finding a diplomatic solution to the US and Israeli war in Iran.
Wang also referenced US efforts to withhold funding from the UN, withdraw from dozens of its agencies and offer an alternative body with Trump’s Board of Peace — which won endorsement from the UN Security Council as a Gaza-focused diplomatic initiative before Trump suggested “it might” replace the global organization that was founded in 1945.
“The UN is at the center of the post-war international system — its role should only be enhanced, not weakened, and its standing upheld, not replaced,” Wang said. “Member states should fulfill their financial obligations with real actions.”
The senior Chinese official’s remarks took aim at US attempts to undermine and shift the UN’s priorities by withholding significant funding from the UN — moves that have prompted a financial crisis at the New York-based organization.
The US has accrued roughly $2 billion in outstanding dues to the world body and has repeatedly critiqued the organization’s focus on issues such as climate change and gender equality. Earlier this year, the Trump administration withdrew from 31 UN entities and 35 other international organizations.
Wang made his comments as Beijing increasingly seeks to challenge the rules-based international order led by the US. Xi has framed his country as a stabilizing force in a world thrown into turmoil by the American leader’s erratic approach to trade and foreign policy.
Still, Chinese officials have said they’re not seeking to overturn the UN system, with diplomats including Wang calling for reforming and improving global governance to make it more “just and equitable.”
With assistance from Charlie Zhu and Jing Li.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
