China opposed Security Council expansion

China voiced concern to the United States about “momentum” to reform the Security Council and warned it would not accept Japan in an expansion, according to a cable leaked on Monday.

China voiced concern to the United States about “momentum” to reform the Security Council and warned it would not accept Japan in an expansion, according to a cable leaked on Monday.

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China in 2005 helped scuttle a joint bid by Brazil, Germany, India and Japan for seats. But since then it has been careful, often saying that it wants to work with others on the issue.

But in a secret cable obtained by WikiLeaks, vice foreign minister He Yafei told a US diplomat that China “was concerned by ‘momentum’ that was building on UN Security Council reform.”

He said the current set-up of a Permanent Five with veto power — Britain, China, France, Russia and the US — should not be “diluted”, according to the document. “If we end up with a ‘P-10’, both China and the US would ‘be in trouble’,” he was quoted as saying.