US Ambassador to UN Wants to Fight Against China ‘Every Step of the Way’

President Biden’s ambassador to the UN on Wednesday slammed China in comments to Congress and said the US would use its weight to counter what she called Beijing’s “malign” influence at the UN.

“They exert enormous influence in the United Nations, and it’s malign … influence that promotes an authoritarian approach to multilateralism,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We need to fight that every step of the way.”

Thomas-Greenfield said the US is regularly addressing China’s alleged human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang at the UN Security Council. “I’m also appalled that we have to sit next to some of the world’s worst human rights abusers, when we’re sitting in the council,” she said.

The irony of Thomas-Greenfield’s comments is that the US frequently uses its permanent position on the UN Security Council to give political cover for Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians.

In May, During Israel’s 11-day bombing campaign in Gaza that killed 256 Palestinians, including 67 children, the US blocked three UN Security Council statements that would have condemned the Israeli violence and called for a ceasefire. The US also threatened to veto a ceasefire resolution France considered introducing.

During her Senate confirmation hearings in January, Thomas-Greenfield vowed to work against what she called the “unfair targeting” of Israel at the UN. She also promised to fight the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that calls for international boycotts to pressure the state of Israel. Thomas-Greenfield said BDS verges on “anti-Semitic.”

Despite Thomas-Greenfield’s efforts to whitewash Israel’s crimes and the latest slaughter in Gaza, she still tries to maintain the moral high ground at the UN. “Many issues would be left unspoken, many human rights violators would get away with their actions, if we were not at the table to raise those issues,” she said Wednesday.