For Courtney Fung, an associate professor at Macquarie University in Australia who studies the role of China in international organizations, the U.S. pressure campaign is part of a test. “In pushing for the FAO [chief] to issue a public condemnation of the Russian invasion, the Biden administration is probing how China operates in multilateral institutions, another arena of strategic competition,” she said. “Do [Chinese] officials heading U.N. agencies adhere to China’s line of a Ukraine ‘situation’ or do they join the international community deploring the Ukraine war and the fall-out of the Russian invasion?” “China emphasizes technocratic, depoliticized global governance leadership,” she said. From the perspective of the Chinese government, she added, “the FAO successfully addressing the emerging food crisis is best done by Qu avoiding high politics and focusing on his institution’s mission of defeating hunger.”