Room at the top

Recent appointments herald opportunities for Chinese leaders in international organizations

There is a visible face to China's increasing influence in global affairs - or faces, to be precise, particularly in senior positions at international organizations in recent years.

Chinese diplomat Wu Hongbo is the most recent addition to this elite group, following Lin Jinhai's appointment as the secretary of the International Monetary Fund in March.

On Aug 6, Wu was sworn in as the new United Nations undersecretary-general for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) at the UN headquarters in New York.

Wu, 60, from Shandong province in eastern China, had been the Chinese ambassador to Germany since 2009. He was also China's former assistant foreign minister. He graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University and pursued a master's degree from Victoria University in New Zealand from 1978 to 1980.

On May 31, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon appointed Wu to this key position, succeeding Chinese diplomat Sha Zukang who had led the department since 2007.

Undersecretary-general is the highest position in the UN that can be held by a Chinese citizen, as there is a rule that the UN secretary-general cannot come from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely China, France, Russia, the United Stats and Britain.

On his new position, Wu says one of the priorities in leading DESA is to help implement the eight Millennium Development Goals, which include ending extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education.

All 193 UN member states have agreed to try to achieve these by 2015.

"What happens after 2015 remains a key question," says Wu, adding that development issues were still the most pressing ones for the international community.

From his personal perspective, Wu found it quite a transition to shift from being a Chinese diplomat to an international civil servant for the UN.

"The goal of my work changes too. It changes from serving my country to serving the international community, which of course includes protecting the interests of China.

UN statistics show that China contributed $74.9 million to the organization's annual budget in 2011 - the eighth largest among the 193 UN members.

The number of UN staff allowed for each member country is determined using a formula that includes demographics and GDP, with budget contributions being a decisive factor.

China currently has fewer than 500 staff at the UN Secretariat, which is the least among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and less than UN members such as Pakistan and Japan, according to Zhang Yi, deputy director of the Secretariat of the United Nations Association of China.

"Wu's appointment, though succeeding another Chinese, is significant and suggests that China will continue to have a voice at key international organizations as it becomes a major player in international politics and economics," Zhu says.

Preceding Wu and Sha at the UN was Chen Jian, the undersecretary-general for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Service of the UN from 2001 to 2007.

Wu Jianmin was elected president of the International Exhibitions Bureau in 2003. Margaret Chan from Hong Kong became director-general of the World Health Organization in 2006.

Lin Jianhai was the first Chinese-born expert to become the IMF Secretary. He is the third Chinese national to join the management ranks of international financial institutions.

He followed Justin Yifu Lin, a former chief economist at the World Bank, and Zhu Min, whose current post as one of three deputy managing directors puts him among the top five IMF officials.

Analysts say that this trend reflects China's strength and responsibility as the world's second-largest economy, but the increase in the number of high-level Chinese officials in international organizations cannot match the growth of China's national strength.

Contact the writers at tanyingzi@chinadailyusa.com and yuweizhang@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 08/10/2012 page3)