Chief of UN intellectual property agency wins re-election as UN faces financial turmoil

As Washington withdraws from United Nations agencies and other member nations cut their funding, pushing the organisation into a severe financial crisis, the head of one well-funded agency won re-election on Thursday, despite criticism over some of his policies.

The vote of 83 eligible member states saw incumbent Daren Tang Heng Shim, a Singaporean national, re-elected to the World Intellectual Property Organisation, or Wipo, by a vote of 81 to 2 against Haitian national Johanny Stanley Joseph.

Tang was elected six years ago to his first term amid a fierce rivalry between Washington and Beijing, the UN’s biggest contributors, with a win of 55 to 28 for Chinese national Wang Binying, a Wipo deputy director general. Wang appeared to have her win all but secured during the 2019 campaigning after lengthy and well-planned lobbying by China only to see the first US President Donald Trump administration go into overdrive and push Tang over the top.

“Well done for flying the Singapore flag high!” then-Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong effused at the time.

This time around, however, the UN’s two largest contributors appeared satisfied, distracted or uninterested, seemingly happy to embrace the status quo.

Headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva.

“I think the Chinese are probably happy with the current one,” said someone close to Wipo who asked not to be identified given fear of retribution, while Washington “has lost interest”.

South China Morning Post