UN in existential crisis – The end of our era

Dear reader,

You may have never heard of this man. In any case, I didn’t know him until recently. His name is Zheng He, a Chinese admiral in the 15th century. He undertook several large expeditions to the Pacific with his junks, including to Africa. To this day, people in Beijing are proud of their own famous explorer, who is revered there like a kind of Chinese Humboldt.

The Chinese ambassador in Washington recently spoke about the seafarer Zheng He. There was a conference there at Howard University some time ago in which people from the African diaspora took part. China’s chief diplomat recounted the following story: “Zheng He brought a giraffe back to China from his travels to Africa.” Then he paused pregnantly and added: “He brought no slaves.”

The message that should reach the African audience: While the Western states have robbed and colonized your continent for centuries, murdered and enslaved your people, China has always been interested in an honest partnership on equal terms. This narrative is an important part of China’s strategy to secure its influence in Africa and many other places around the world and to outcompete Western states. Beijing is thus breaking open doors in many countries around the world. Even if China by no means always offers partnerships on equal terms.

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An American professor at Howard University in Washington experienced this scene with the Chinese ambassador Zheng He. A few days ago she told the German Foreign Minister about it. Annalena Baerbock listened and then said: “I think I will quote you and also the Chinese ambassador in my upcoming speeches because I think that puts the finger in the right wound.”

Baerbock’s American counterpart Antony Blinken described this wound in a remarkably clear speech the day before. At the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), another Washington university, Blinken said: “What we’re experiencing now is more than a test of the post-Cold War order. It’s the end of it.” In German: “What we are currently experiencing is more than just the test of a post-Cold War world order – it is the end of it.”

The reasons are obvious: The development of international cooperation is not only becoming increasingly complex, Blinken continued. There are increasing geopolitical tensions and global problems are now huge. Then came his sentence on China: “Meanwhile, the People’s Republic of China poses the greatest long-term challenge because it not only wants to transform the international order, but also increasingly has the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do just that.” Beijing and Moscow are working together as part of their “borderless partnership” to make the world more and more a place for autocracies, said Blinken.

But how could this happen? The United Nations was the core element of international cooperation, recognized for decades. No matter how dysfunctional and bureaucratic they may have been from day one. Despite setbacks, such as the genocide in Rwanda, the UN has at least always been able to respond to various crises.

But now, it seems, this New York-based institution, created after the Second World War, is in a real existential crisis. The United Nations therefore urgently needs to be reformed for the benefit of the many small and seemingly insignificant states in the world. To achieve this, the West, and especially the world power USA, must make changes. Our own past mistakes, such as the American lies about the Iraq War, are proving to be a real burden, especially today in times of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

The crisis at the UN can be seen symbolically in the demonstrative absence of important representatives. More than 140 heads of state and government are expected to attend the annual UN General Assembly in New York this week. But the key leaders of the five permanent members of the UN’s most powerful body, the Security Council, are not coming. Only the American president Joe Biden will arrive. As always, Russia and China do not consider it necessary Xi Jinping oder Wladimir Putin to send. But France and Great Britain are also not affected Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak represent.

It is not the first time in recent weeks that Chinese President Xi Jinping has demonstrated his indifference towards international formats. He also didn’t show up at the last G20 summit in India. He doesn’t even send his foreign minister to the UN General Assembly. Instead, states such as China, Russia and India prefer to strive for their own international formats, such as the planned huge expansion of the BRICS states, which was recently decided and which will also include Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Argentina and Egypt.

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