Beijing blocking Wikipedia from United Nations intellectual property agency over Taiwan is resistance against ‘Western values’, analysts say

The move counters Washington’s successful campaign earlier this year to derail China’s candidate as head of the World Intellectual Property Organization

The UN agency has an outsize role in global patents and trademarks, which is attractive to both China and the US as they battle over technology

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The World Intellectual Property Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland in March. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:57am, 30 Sep 2020Updated: 9:40pm, 30 Sep 2020

Beijing’s move effectively blocking Wikipedia from gaining observer status at a United Nations agency last week on the grounds that it has a Taiwan subsidiary serves at least three of China’s political objectives, analysts said.

China’s move to deny observer status for San Francisco-based Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia’s parent, at the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo) dovetails with Beijing’s long-standing policy of limiting international recognition of the self-governing island. Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province to be reunited by force if necessary.

“It’s a pretty low bar to qualify as an observer at Wipo,” said James Pooley, a trade secrets lawyer and former Wipo deputy director general who testified before Congress on malfeasance at the UN agency. “The problem that Wikipedia faced, it touched a third rail for China, which is Taiwan.”

Beijing’s muscle-flexing also allows it to thumb its nose at Washington, which mounted a successful last-minute campaign earlier this year to derail China’s candidate as head of Wipo, analysts said. US-backed candidate Daren Tang, a Singaporean, won and will start his six-year term Thursday.

Daren Tang, the next Wipo director general, at the group’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland in March. Photo: EPA-EFE

“China, of course, is really pissed off that the US did this against them,” said Wei Lei, former Wipo chief information officer, dismissed in 2019 over what he said were trumped-up charges of theft after reporting irregularities at the agency.