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Wendy Wu

China should support India’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, a prominent US economist has suggested, saying the two Asian powers could overcome historical grievances and political distrust to inject stability into the world.
“China’s real interest is true, stable multipolarity,” Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs told a seminar in Beijing on Friday, urging India not to become a pawn in a US game to hold China back.
“I believe that China should, after some discussion and negotiation, support India as the sixth permanent member of the Security Council,” Sachs told the gathering hosted by the Centre for China and Globalisation, a Beijing-based think tank.
He called for the two Asian giants to “settle the old British score and recognise that they achieve a great commonality of interests” to become two stabilisers of the whole world system.
Sachs was referring to a disputed Himalayan border between the two countries, the legacy of century-old British colonial-era border agreements. The dispute has long been a source of hostility between Beijing and New Delhi, which erupted into bloodshed in the Galwan Valley six years ago.
Sachs, an advocate for multilateralism and a staunch critic of US President Donald Trump’s policies, also said the United Nations should base a major operation in Beijing to transform it into a truly global body.
“My practical proposal is for China to offer to host a major UN campus on sustainable development, because China’s speciality is not the war and peace issue, nor does China want to become the global peacekeeper, but to lead the sustainable development agenda just because of its industrial capacity,” he said.
Asked if he had put the idea to the Chinese leadership, Sachs said: “I have suggested it very informally in a number of ways to Chinese leaders, and I hope that they consider it as something real and interesting.”


Eight decades after its founding, the United Nations has become a source of contention between the United States and China.
In a report released on Friday, the US House Select Committee on China accused Beijing of trying to shape the UN from within by using budget contributions, appointments to key UN executive positions and strategically deployed troops to expand its reach and undermine US interests. Beijing has not yet responded to the claims.
At the same time, the UN is grappling with a deepening cash crunch due to unpaid fees. The United States – the UN’s biggest contributor, accounting for 22 per cent of the UN’s core budget – owes more than US$4.5 billion in outstanding funding, and has withdrawn from dozens of UN agencies.
Sachs, a long-time adviser to the UN secretary general, said the US had played its part in undermining UN institutions and, consequently, the global order, especially since Trump’s return to the White House.
He described Washington as “the worst abuser” of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which stipulates all members shall refrain from threatening or using force against a sovereign state.
“We are constantly trying to overthrow governments all over the world, sometimes covertly, many times overtly,” he said.
“In the last 20 years, the US has invaded more countries, has used the CIA to overthrow governments, has launched many ‘colour revolutions’. And most American allies don’t call out the US. Because of this, we end up in a normalised system of violence,” he said.
“There is no honest reflection of these issues”, particularly in the US, he said, adding that Europe lacked the ability to reach consensus in handling key issues.
Citing the Iran war initiated by the US and Israel, he said “there have been very few opportunities for the adult conversations, which we need”.
“The answer [to address the global governance crisis] would be for the rest of the world to act like grown-ups and insist that we get back to the very sensible system that’s not happening right now,” he said.


The war is entering its fourth week and in that time at least 39 oil refineries, natural gas fields and other energy sites in nine countries in the region have been damaged, according to the New York Times.
In the aftermath, the world has been plunged into an energy crisis, the resilience of global supply chains has been threatened, and a global economy already slowed by Trump’s tariff policy is facing fresh uncertainty.
Trump said on Friday that the US was considering winding down the conflict but Washington continues to ramp up air strikes against Iranian military assets and has deployed 2,500 marines and three more naval vessels to the Middle East.
Sachs said the US “has no immunity” to the economic crisis, which was very likely to escalate further and have wider ramifications.
Sachs also called on superpowers to leave some space for what he called a “sphere of security” that would prevent conflicts such as the Ukraine war, “a huge and tragic mistake” that has dragged into a fourth year.
“Superpowers should not provoke each other,” he said.
To that end, “the US should simply not sell arms to Taiwan”, he said.
“China and Russia should stay out of the US neighbourhood with their military. And the US should do the same in Ukraine, and it should do the same in Taiwan.”
Beijing views Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary. Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state. But Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the self-governed island by force and is committed by law to supplying it with weapons.


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The world needs to act like grown-ups and get back to sensible management of global affairs, Sachs says


The world needs to act like grown-ups and get back to sensible management of global affairs, Sachs says.


China, India and why Jeffrey Sachs says the US needs to make the UN great again

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The world needs to act like grown-ups and get back to sensible management of global affairs, Sachs says

The world needs to act like grown-ups and get back to sensible management of global affairs, Sachs says