It was once said that sunlight is the best disinfectant, however in the marbled halls of the United Nations’ Geneva headquarters, a concerted campaign by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is ensuring that some of the world’s darkest abuses remain hidden in shadow.
Recent investigations have revealed that Beijing is orchestrating an insidious effort to hijack the UN’s human rights apparatus by weaponising a cadre of state-affiliated NGOs, all in the service of silencing criticism and sanitising its international image.
This strategy, equal parts brazen and effective, is unfolding most visibly in the UN Human Rights Council, the very body charged with safeguarding the dignity and freedoms of the world’s most vulnerable. Instead of being a bastion of global conscience, Geneva is fast becoming a theatre for authoritarian propaganda.
At the heart of this campaign is a tactic as cynical as it is clever. China has deployed state-backed “non-governmental organisations”—a misnomer if ever there was one—to infiltrate proceedings, stack public sessions, and drown out dissent.
These groups, often indistinguishable from the Party’s foreign propaganda arms, speak not for the oppressed but for their oppressors. Their remit is not to protect human rights, but to deny their abuse—particularly those committed against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Tibetans under occupation, and Hong Kongers stripped of their liberties.
This is not merely political gamesmanship; it is a fundamental subversion of the international order. When supposed NGOs deliver scripted paeans to the Party’s leadership while activists are barred from attending, the entire framework of multilateral human rights diplomacy is placed under strain.
Genuine civil society actors—those who risk imprisonment, exile or worse to speak truth to power—are being pushed to the margins. In their place stand polished functionaries of the CCP, delivering an illusion of consensus while the reality is one of repression.
That Beijing seeks to shield itself from scrutiny is no surprise. What is more damning is how many in the West appear content to let it happen. The very institutions designed in the post-war era to prevent the repetition of tyranny are now being bent to serve it. And all the while, global powers—preoccupied with domestic squabbles or economic entanglements—look the other way.
The UN’s credibility is not infinite. If its human rights system becomes little more than a stage for autocrats to perform their innocence, it will lose the moral force that gives its declarations any weight.
Already, there are signs of decay. Chinese representatives routinely interrupt speakers, object to dissidents’ participation, and challenge accreditation for NGOs critical of Beijing. In one documented case, an accredited Tibetan rights group was barred after Chinese diplomats complained—an action that flies in the face of the UN’s own commitment to pluralism.
And yet, Western democracies seem paralysed. While they issue carefully worded statements and occasionally stage symbolic walkouts, there is a distinct absence of the spine required to confront this systemic erosion. The UK, along with allies in Europe and North America, must recognise that what is at stake is not merely procedural fairness but the very soul of the UN.
To counter Beijing’s incursion, a robust response is required. This means pushing for greater transparency over NGO affiliations, stricter criteria for accreditation, and a renewed commitment to supporting independent civil society—especially those voices Beijing wants silenced. It also means naming and shaming the false fronts that serve as Beijing’s mouthpieces.
More broadly, it demands a recalibration of our collective tolerance for appeasement. China has become masterful at exploiting the West’s own rules-based instincts. It cloaks aggression in bureaucracy, repression in diplomacy, and censorship in the language of sovereignty.
But we cannot afford to be naïve. If we value the ideals the UN was built upon—truth, justice, and the protection of the voiceless—we must be willing to defend them, not just with words, but with action.
There was a time when British diplomats prided themselves on being the conscience of international institutions. It is time they reclaimed that role, and in doing so, called out the masquerade in Geneva for what it is: a political coup by stealth.
The world is watching. The question is: will we act before the curtain falls?
Main Image: By SFT HQ (Students for a Free Tibet) – https://www.flickr.com/photos/sfthq/3527565758/in/set-72157618098311346, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35898197
