Fresh from the G7 Foreign Ministers Summit, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a video address to the UN Security Council on Friday, May 7, 2020. Although he did not mention the Chinese Communist Party in his speech, he noted that some permanent members of the UN Security Council (alluding to China) flout the rules-based international order and obstruct accountability for those who violate international law, and said the United States and its allies will push back hard against such behavior.
Blinken began his speech by reviewing the history of the creation of the United Nations. In the aftermath of World War II, he said, the international community generally agreed that “competition will undoubtedly lead to conflict, and the rise of one nation will inevitably lead to the fall of another,” so the U.S. and its World War II allies decided to go the other way and set up a set of institutions to “prevent conflict, alleviate human suffering, defend human rights and promote sustained dialogue. So the United States and its World War II allies decided to go the other way, setting up a set of principles to “prevent conflict, alleviate human suffering, defend human rights and promote sustained dialogue” and forming the United Nations accordingly to “preserve and improve a principle-based international order for the benefit of all.
And for nearly 80 years, he continued, the United States and its allies have been very conscientious in adhering to this principle. He urged all nations to adhere to this principle. We will continue to push back hard against those who undermine the international order, the kind of behavior that pretends that these rules that we all agree on don’t exist, and violate them at will,” he said. Because for the system to work, all countries must comply with it and work for its success.”
He therefore demanded that all UN member states “meet their commitments, particularly legally binding commitments, which include the UN Charter treaties and conventions, UN Security Council resolutions, international human rights law, and rules and standards set under the auspices of the WTO and numerous international standards organizations.”
Blinken emphasized that the U.S. is urging countries to follow this international order not because it wishes to suppress others, but because this principle will benefit all nations. Let me be clear,” he said, “the United States has no intention of upholding these rule-based international orders in order to suppress others. The international order we have helped to build and defend has produced some of our strongest competitors, and our goal is simply to defend, uphold and reinvigorate that order.”
He went on to stress the importance of universal human rights and refuted the view that human rights issues are internal affairs and subject to national values. He said, “Human rights and dignity must be kept at the heart of the international order. Some countries argue that what governments do in their own countries is their own internal affair and that human rights issues are subject to national values. But the Universal Declaration of Human Rights begins by declaring the ‘universal’ nature of human rights issues, because all of us recognize that there are rights to which every human being anywhere is entitled. To emphasize the sovereignty of one’s own country does not mean giving one country the right to enslave, torture and torture, disappear, ethnically cleanse its own people, or somehow violate the human rights of others.”
On the issue of territory, Blinken emphasized the principle of the sovereign equality of UN member states. He said, “When a state tries to redraw another state’s borders, or tries to use or threaten to use force to resolve a territorial dispute, or claims the right to make choices or decisions by ordering or coercing another state, it is not complying with this principle. This principle is not respected when a country launches attacks against another country with disinformation or weaponizes corruption, undermines the free, fair elections and democratic systems of another country, or launches attacks against journalists and dissidents abroad. Such hostile behavior will also endanger, the international peace and security that the UN Charter requires the UN Security Council to maintain.”
He also criticized, “When members of the United Nations, especially the permanent members of the UNSC, flout these rules and obstruct accountability for those who violate international law, it sends a message that other countries can break these rules with impunity.”
Analysts at Bloomberg believe that while Blinken’s speech contained not a single word about the Chinese Communist Party, every word pointed to the Communist Party’s problems. Although the Security Council meeting was chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as the representative of the rotating presidency, Blinken’s speech came minutes after Wang Yi “urged” the UN to “seek equality and justice, not bullying and hegemony.
In their final communiqué at the G7 Foreign Ministers Summit, which concluded on May 5, the G7 Foreign Ministers also condemned the Chinese Communist Party’s failure to honor its international commitments, including the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, its violations of human rights in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, and its arbitrary economic coercion of other countries.
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