- Last week, the Chinese government released a concept note for an upcoming event titled “The Impact of Unilateralism and Bullying Practices on International Relations.” The event is scheduled to take place on April 23 as an Arria-formula meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
As outlined in the concept note, the event’s purpose is to decry the U.S. government’s “arbitrary unilateral tariffs” and rally countries against the U.S. under the guise of defending fairness and justice in international affairs. Among its stated objectives, it lists ensuring that the U.N. aligns on this agenda and takes effective measures to “counter the impact of unilateralism and bullying on international relations.”
Two featured speakers will deliver briefings at the meeting:
- Jeffrey David Sachs, a Columbia University professor notorious for cow-towing to authoritarian regimes, including those led by Nicolás Maduro, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping.
- Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The event will be broadcast live at 10:00 EST / 16:00 CET on UNTV and accessible in the 6 U.N. languages.
This initiative by Beijing comes amid a broader diplomatic campaign. In the same week, the “Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations”-a bloc of the world’s worst dictatorships, including China, North Korea, Eritrea, Cuba, Russia, Venezuela, and Iran-also convened. The group issued a statement denouncing the “weaponization of tariffs” and echoed China’s calls for a rules-based international order free from what they labeled as “hegemonic interference.”
These efforts reflect a coordinated strategy by authoritarian states to challenge Western influence in international institutions under the banner of defending multilateralism and the U.N. Charter.
“It’s Orwellian to watch China, one of the world’s leading abusers of economic coercion and human rights, convene a UN meeting to accuse others of bullying. This is the same regime that threatens sanctions on democracies recognizing Taiwan, punishes countries for standing with Uyghurs, and bullies its neighbors in the South China Sea. Beijing’s attempt to hijack the UN to attack the United States is not about peace or development-it’s about shielding authoritarian power from accountability.”
- Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch
