How Coronavirus Has Infected Security Council Meeting Rules
Earlier this week, the United States pressed for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the situation in Hong Kong. In so doing, the Trump administration was following a time-honored practice of putting before the Council matters on which it could not plausibly take formal action. (The veto power that China holds means that any draft Council resolution criticizing the Chinese crackdown would be dead on arrival.)
But as the United Nations’ history has demonstrated, the Council is an instrument of political theater as much as political action. And the (in)famous veto power does not apply to simply putting matters on the Council agenda. The Council’s procedural rules allow a simple majority to put an issue before the body.
In the case of Hong Kong, demonstrating to China its isolation could have real value. The United States used the Council effectively in this mode during the Cuban Missile Crisis and after the Soviet Union shot down a Korean civilian airliner by the Soviet Union (interestingly, the Council never convened publicly to discuss the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown). Of course, Council meetings have also been used to humiliate the United States, usually by forcing U.S. administrations to veto Council resolutions critical of Israel.
Given this history, I was surprised to see in news accounts that China had managed to squash the idea of a public meeting on Hong Kong. Could Beijing really have mustered a majority that opposed even discussing the matter? No. Instead, the explanation is the coronavirus and, more specifically, special rules that have been adopted for virtual Council meetings.
As I understand it, all this means that until the Council convenes again in person, China will be able to prevent public meetings on Hong Kong. Instead, the Council will reportedly convene in a closed session devoted to “all other business” to consider the situation in Hong Kong. That is better than no meeting at all, but it greatly diminishes the value of the exercise. Being a permanent Council member has ample privileges. Thanks to the coronavirus, those privileges have now expanded to include escaping public embarrassment.