'America First' Is Boosting China's Rise

How Trump's withdrawal from the global stage is creating the perfect vacuum for China

Global institutions are slowly being reshaped by a new force outside of American control, and Washington seems content to let it happen.

This week, the US pulled out of yet another international organization, UNESCO, the UN organization charged with promoting international cooperation in the areas of education, science and culture. The reason, according to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, was that the organization advanced a “globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy.” However, as the deciding factor, Bruce cited UNESCO's decision to admit Palestine to its organization as “highly problematic, contrary to U.S. policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization.”

So, because of some incoherent rambling against international development and the incessant need for the United States to destroy its diplomatic credibility throughout the world for the benefit of Israel, the United States cut one more of its many ties to the world. UNESCO is not the only organization on the chopping block. The Trump administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council due to alleged “anti-Israel bias,” from the Paris climate accord after Republican pro-oil mania, from UNRWA also at the behest of the Israelis, significantly cut funding from UNICEF in their recent spending bill, and withdrew from the World Health Organization because the Trump administration faulted them for the spread of COVID-19. All this may seem insignificant, but will lead to thousands of deaths and increased suffering worldwide, all for pennies in relative savings for the budget.

Not only that, Trump’s withdrawal from agencies that were once critical nodes of US soft power are already weakening its once unquestionable stranglehold on world affairs, providing a window for new powers to seize control— one new power, in particular: China.

Take UNESCO as an example. When Trump first came into power in 2017, Chinese strategists recognized Trump’s disdain for international institutions as a way for them to advance their own priorities. In a new, fearmongering report, the New York Times details how China has seized influence over the organization, securing a top position in the organization, deputy director general, for themselves. This influence has also come in the form of increased UNESCO support for Xi Jinping's Belt and Road initiative, with the organization hosting summits of cooperation between Belt and Road countries.

China has also tried to use UNESCO to shift cultural power to the East. They’ve successfully lobbied for multiple World Heritage Site designations in an effort to pass Italy as the country with the leading amount of the culturally significant sites. This effort in particular has also been instrumental in expanding China’s political power in its own region. Some of the sites suggested by China are in Tibet and Xinjiang, regions where Beijing has attempted to expand its own political control, committing what many say are human rights violations on people unwilling to submit to Xi's vision of Han Chinese homogeneity in the process.

On top of that, UNESCO recently inked an agreement with iFlytek, a Chinese AI company, to cooperate on higher education efforts throughout Asia and Africa. While this partnership is just one of many UNESCO engages in, it's another missed opportunity for the US to expand its soft power influence in a region where it’s steadily losing control.

A similar dynamic was reported when the US withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO) at the start of Trump’s second term over the organization’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to creating serious funding challenges in the fight against humanitarian crises throughout the globe, the US ceded significant ground to China in global health diplomacy, an area where Washington was once an acknowledged leader.

From just 2015-19, China donated $2.14 billion in medical aid to developing countries— and upped that to $4.6 billion during the first two years of the pandemic, far exceeding Washington and other western countries. While US companies overcharged South Africa for their vaccines, China immunized a staggering 2.3 percent of the developing world against the virus, according to The Diplomat. They specifically targeted “tossup” countries, those with public and elite opinion Beijing’s leaders calculated could easily be swayed toward China with an act of goodwill.

In a future health crisis, it’s clear China is positioned to be the unchallenged leader of the response. They’ve increased their additional WHO funding—money committed by member states on top of their membership fees—pledging an additional $100 million over the next five years. This will have more major reputational consequences for the US, as China moves to become the first power developing nations look to for aid in moments of crisis.

UNESCO and the WHO are just two examples of this broader trend: the United States is retreating from the world stage, and the Chinese are running towards it. The same can be seen in the US shuttering of USAID, a critical diplomatic and soft power tool, and the countries beginning to seek out Chinese stability in the wake of Trump’s trade war chaos.

For the mission of maintaining American influence and dominance throughout the globe, Trump’s actions on the UN, trade and aid couldn’t be more harmful. However, when considering the US’s motivations for this ugly retreat: more economic dominance, naked contempt for the global poor, and an obsessive desire to cover for Israel’s genocide, it’s worth seriously asking if the US even deserves the position of global dominance it’s enjoyed for so long.

For global peace, prosperity and stability, a serious change, and a major wake up call for Washington may well be in order.