China’s United Nations Protest Against Takaichi Backfires

By invoking international law, Beijing accidentally spotlights its own UN bribery rings and covert intelligence networks. (Second is a series of three articles.)

China has accused Japan of a “grave violation of international law” after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made a routine and legally defensible observation: that a Taiwan crisis involving Chinese use of force could directly threaten Japan’s security. Beijing has since escalated its outrage into a diplomatic spectacle at the United Nations. Yet China’s sudden reverence for international law appears deeply unconvincing in light of its own record of corruption, coercion, and violations of UN norms.

For years, Beijing has demonstrated virtually no accountability for major breaches of international law carried out inside the UN system by individuals acting on its behalf.

One of the most notorious examples is Ng Lap Seng, who was convicted in U.S. federal court for bribing the U.N. General Assembly President to secure institutional support for a Macau development project tied to China’s early Belt and Road Initiative outreach¹. Ng, long suspected of links to Chinese organized crime, had previously been involved in funneling illicit funds to influence the Clinton administration during Chinagate. His rise from a self-styled Macau gaming operator with modest means to a billionaire with a prestigious seat on the CPPCC (a top United Front body) reflects the fusion of political influence, shadow finance, and covert state objectives.

Even as Ng was conducting his bribery scheme, Patrick Ho, a senior figure at CEFC China Energy, was executing parallel influence operations. CEFC functioned as a de facto intelligence and political warfare arm aligned with Xi Jinping’s global ambitions. Ho was later convicted for bribery schemes targeting African officials, but his activities extended far deeper. Around the 2016 U.S. election, he funneled $700,000 to a think tank linked to former CIA Director James Woolsey, who was then serving as national security adviser to Donald Trump. Ho exploited this access to coerce Woolsey into pro-Xi statements at BRI events in New York, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Washington and to gain access to sensitive military technologies and hardware for potential use in PRC negotiations with third countries. Ho’s activities intersected repeatedly with Ng’s, and together they treated the UN as an operational hub for Beijing’s political warfare.

This history makes China’s current posture especially difficult to take seriously. As Beijing now accuses Japan of “grave violations of international law,” it is worth recalling that Ng and Ho were both indicted and convicted in open court, not for political statements, but for criminal corruption linked directly to PRC influence operations. Japan, by contrast, has merely stated the obvious: that Chinese aggression toward Taiwan has direct implications for Japanese security.

It is important to stress that only a small faction within the Chinese elite is responsible for these corrosive political warfare strategies. But it is precisely this faction: loud, aggressive, and deeply invested in narratives of grievance that repeatedly cries wolf on the international stage while engaging in the very abuses it denounces.

The world should recognize the pattern. And it should be clear-eyed about who the real violators of international law are.

1. John Ashe, 61, died from a barbell dropped while weightlifting, a representative for the Westchester County Medical Examiner’s Office said. Confirmation that the Dobbs Ferry-based diplomat suffered traumatic asphyxia and a laryngeal cartilage fracture came after early reports saying Ashe had a heart attack. Jun 23, 2016