China's steadily expanding footprint within the United Nations took centre stage at a US Congressional hearing on Wednesday, 23 July, as senior Trump administration officials and lawmakers warned that Beijing is systematically leveraging the international body to advance its strategic, military, and technological ambitions. The session, convened by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, focused on UN reform and drew sharp bipartisan concern over Washington's ability to counter Chinese influence across global institutions.

Key Developments at the Hearing

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told lawmakers that Washington was actively working to push back against China's growing presence in critical UN agencies and standard-setting bodies. He argued that disengagement from these institutions would be a strategic mistake. “We have to get in there and fight and win,” Waltz said.

Waltz stressed that the contest for influence had moved well beyond traditional diplomacy, extending into specialised UN bodies that govern intellectual property, telecommunications, aviation, and maritime affairs. “There are these global standard-setting bodies, these little baby UN agencies that many people have never heard of, that set the rules of the road for our industries around the world,” he said.

Battleground Agencies: WIPO and ITU

Waltz cited two agencies as flashpoints. At the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United States backed a Singaporean candidate over a Chinese nominee to lead the body responsible for setting global intellectual property standards. At the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) — which governs standards for cables, spectrum, and radio technologies — Washington is reportedly supporting an American candidate for re-election to retain influence over the rules shaping the global digital economy.

Belt and Road, Peacekeeping, and Dual-Purpose Concerns

Republican lawmakers raised concerns that Beijing was using both financial contributions and peacekeeping deployments to expand its geopolitical reach. Representative Scott Perry alleged that China’s Belt and Road Initiative had become entangled with several UN agencies, enabling Beijing to pursue debt diplomacy and build political leverage across the developing world.

Waltz said the administration had demanded that the UN Secretariat stop using a trust fund linked to the Belt and Road Initiative. “We’ve demanded the UN Secretariat stop using that slush fund,” he said, adding that Washington had also increased oversight of aid funding flows.

Representative Sheri Biggs raised the question of whether China’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations served broader military objectives. China is currently the largest troop contributor among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and the second-largest financial contributor to the organisation overall. Asked whether Beijing was using peacekeeping deployments for intelligence gathering, Waltz replied: “I don’t think for a second that they don’t serve a dual purpose as eyes and ears on the ground for the Chinese Communist Party.” He acknowledged, however, that Chinese peacekeeping contingents were often better equipped than those of many other nations.

US Underrepresentation and the Push for Reform

Jeffrey Bartos, US Representative for UN Management and Reform at the State Department, said the United States remained underrepresented within the UN bureaucracy relative to its financial contributions. He called for placing more Americans in leadership positions across the organisation. “Our allies have a choice… when we do step in there and provide leadership, we have meaningful impacts across the system,” Bartos said.

The hearing also surfaced a bipartisan divide over strategy: while there was broad agreement on the need for UN modernisation, lawmakers differed sharply on whether to pursue it through deeper engagement or through funding cuts designed to force institutional change.

China’s Two-Decade Expansion at the UN

Beijing has steadily enlarged its presence across the UN system over the past two decades, increasing both its financial contributions and its representation in specialised agencies. It has also sought greater sway over international standards governing technology, telecommunications, development finance, and global trade — areas that US officials now describe as central to long-term strategic competition. How Washington calibrates its response — through engagement, funding leverage, or both — is expected to define the next phase of US-China rivalry within multilateral institutions.