Whistleblower exposes UN-China nexus, reveals Beijing got COVID-19 lab leak mention edited in reports

China is not just intensifying its influence on Taiwan, Pakistan and a host of other nations, but has also been allegedly trying to reshape international relations and the world order by influencing multilateral institutions including the United Nations.

If the allegations made by a former employee of the United Nation’s Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR), a British citizen, Emma Reilly, are true, China managed to get the reports of the WHO and UNEP “edited to reduce reference to the possibility of a lab leak.”

The whistleblower even submitted to show how China has been trying to reshape the rules-based international order to reflect its own priorities by taking over multilateral institutions.

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China using influence to silence discussions on sensitive top

The evidence provided by Reilly, who has been now been dismissed from her job for blowing the whistle, also highlighted that China was influencing votes at the United Nations to squelch discussions on topics it found sensitive.

Not just this, she even highlighted that Beijing bribed two General Assembly presidents and through development assistance, influenced votes at the UN.

“During the two-year negotiation of the SDGs (2013-2015) Beijing paid bribes to two successive presidents of the General Assembly which had significant influence over the final texts put to the Assembly… such that the content of the final goals and indicators closely aligns with Beijing’s approach — devoid of civil and political rights and freedoms,” she said.

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Reilly has submitted written evidence against China to the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, which is now investigating these allegations as part of its inquiry into international relations in the multilateral system.

Nexus between UN and Chinese government

Through her significant revelation, Reilly has levelled serious accusations against the United Nations, alleging a disturbing nexus between the OHCHR and the Chinese government.

Evidence provided by her also alleged that China “imposes a secret conditionality across UN agencies that the monies so provided may not be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan”.

China influencing UN ’exposed’

Furthermore, in the written evidence that Reilly submitted on Tuesday, she has exposed how China influences the OHCHR to not raise certain issues and “exerts significant pressure” on senior UN officials and staff to modify their reports to remove negative references to China.

We have published written evidence including from former employee of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and whistleblower Emma Reilly and the FCDO.

Read the evidence here: https://t.co/CJL1j5ZVY9

— Foreign Affairs Committee (@CommonsForeign) April 16, 2024

“Reports of both the WHO (World Health Organization) and the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) on origins of COVID-19 were edited to remove references to the possibility of a lab leak,” she said.

Chinese govt made significant edits in the report on the treatment of Uyghurs

Reilly further said that the OHCHR report on the treatment of Uyghurs was also significantly edited by the Chinese government and claimed that UN staff were secretly giving Chinese authorities the names of human rights activists who planned to attend the Human Rights Council to talk about China’s human rights abuses.

She went on to say these people then found that their family members in China were visited by the Chinese police, placed under house arrest, arbitrarily arrested, tortured, put in concentration camps. Some even disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

“Beijing’s consistent demand for meetings and apologies following even the mildest criticism has ensures that even relatively independent UN officials do not publicly criticise China, or even raise human rights concerns privately. This results in a perverse situation where democracies that permit dissent are much more regularly criticised by the UN’s human rights and humanitarian agencies than autocratic regimes,” Reilly said.

China wants its people to be on top posts in UN

She went on to say in recent years, China has successfully campaigned for its nationals to lead or obtain very senior management posts in a significant number of UN departments programmes and agencies.

“No other member state has a strong presence across the most senior management of almost every UN agency,” Reilly said.