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China may support Tharoor: NYT
Pak may object to India's candidature, says author of The Best Intentions.
China may be happy to firm up its ties with India by backing its candidate Shashi Tharoor for the post of the next United Nations Secretary General but its close ally, Pakistan, may object strenuously, says the author of an upcoming book on the United Nations.
Chinese are much too subtle to throw their support behind a single candidate, but it is "widely assumed that they want a technocrat who will put aside "admitted, tarnished, mantle of moral authority," says James Traub, author of "The Best Intentions," in an article in New York Times' magazine.
Chinese UN ambassador Wang Guangya disclaims any such ambition but does express the hope that Annan's successor might bring perspective from Asia, Traub says.
Noting that the Asian countries feel it is their turn for the top UN job and China has promised to deliver an Asian, the article notes that any potential successor must survive both American and Chinese scrutiny.
Traub says, "The Americans will reject too open an advocate for the third world agenda; China will reject an aspirant from too close an ally of Washington. Other difficulties will arise. China may be happy to firm up its ties with India by backing Shashi Tharoor, a career UN official who is India's candidate, but Pakistan, a close ally, may object strenuously."
He also says "deep sense of historical grievance" over Tokyo's "notorious invasion" of Nanking in 1937 and its aggression in World War II was behind China's opposition to Japan becoming a permanent member of UN Security Council.
In the bid of India, Japan, Brazil and Germany to become permanent members of UNSC, Wang and several of his lieutenants negotiated with the ambassadors of wavering countries.
