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Qu Dongyu reacts after being appointed the new director general of the FAO in Rome on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE

UN food agency FAO may face more US scrutiny with Chinese national Qu Dongyu at the helm

  • World will be watching the UN’s food and agriculture agency when its new director general takes over in August
  • Having greater influence at the body could give China ‘another point of entry’ into countries, alongside the Belt and Road Initiative

Qu Dongyu’s election to head the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation will extend China’s reach in the developing world, but it could also bring closer scrutiny from the US.

Elected on Sunday, Qu is now one of just a few Chinese nationals leading a major global organisation, and the world will be watching how the 55-year-old with little international experience may change the FAO when he takes the helm as director general in August.

China’s sitting vice-minister for agriculture and rural affairs, Qu won 108 of the 191 total votes, followed by French candidate Catherine Geslain-Laneelle with 71, and Davit Kirvalidze of Georgia with 12.

One of the goals of the UN organisation is to eradicate hunger in the world by 2030, and it wields considerable power in global agricultural development projects, research and standard-setting in food production and safety. The FAO commands a US$2.6 billion budget and mobilised US$6.5 billion in investments in agriculture in 2017.

In his acceptance speech, Qu reportedly joked that the organisation needed a boost of “vitamin M” for “money”, and said he hoped to increase the FAO’s funding by 10 per cent annually.

But heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington may see more US scrutiny of the Qu-led FAO, according to Dirk Pfeiffer, chair of One Health at City University of Hong Kong.

“This may make the work the FAO is doing harder, as the US may look even more cautiously at the way they target their development funding, and they may go to other organisations,” Pfeiffer said.

The US is a top funder of the FAO, and provided 20 per cent – more than US$300 million – of the organisation’s emergency programme in 2016, according to FAO figures. The next largest sources of funding were Britain and the European Union.

This may make the work the FAO is doing harder, as the US may look even more cautiously at the way they target their development funding
Dirk Pfeiffer, City University of Hong Kong

US funding cuts have already been made to the FAO under President Donald Trump. For 2020, budget requests for the organisation dropped by US$1.1 million from the previous year, according to a US State Department report.

With Qu at the helm of the FAO, China’s influence in the developing world is also expected to increase, and Beijing could take a bigger role in funding the organisation.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Monday said Qu’s election was a “show of high appreciation of China’s support for multilateralism and advancing global development”.

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He said China would “continue to work with other countries to promote the development of the global food and agriculture industries”.

Pfeiffer said having greater influence at the FAO could give China “another point of entry” into countries, alongside its global infrastructure and development scheme, the Belt and Road Initiative.

“The belt and road was a big step in engaging with the developing world, and this will support it – it just fits. They may also put money into the organisation,” he said.

It is unclear how much funding China contributes to the FAO at present.

Qu is the first Chinese national elected to head the FAO. Other global bodies with Chinese nationals at the top include the International Civil Aviation Organisation, UN Industrial Development Organisation and the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs.

Hongkongers who have held top jobs at international bodies include the city’s former director of health Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, who was director general of the World Health Organisation from 2007 to 2017, while ex-police chief Andy Tsang Wai-hung was recently nominated to lead the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Separately, Meng Hongwei was president of Interpol until September last year, when he was arrested in China. Meng stood trial in Tianjin last week, pleading guilty to taking over 14 million yuan (US$2 million) in bribes when he was vice-minister of public security.

The FAO job, which will be based in the Italian capital Rome, will be Qu’s first overseas posting. A biologist by training, Qu was previously vice-chairman of the Ningxia Hui region in northwest China.

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