50 years after China’s admission, Taiwan remains shut out of UN

[Deeq A.]

Taipei’s exclusion from agencies such as WHO draws global condemnation

The Chinese delegation to the United Nations takes its place in the General Assembly in New York, Nov. 15, 1971, after being accepted into the global body the previous month.   © AP

TAIPEI — For two decades in its early years, the United Nations had a credibility problem. It claimed to represent the nations of the world, yet the People’s Republic of China, which was home to roughly one-fifth of humanity, was not a member.

That changed on October 25, 1971, with the admission of the People’s Republic to the global body, where it took one of the five permanent veto-wielding seats on the Security Council. The government it displaced, the Republic of China, had ruled China before being toppled by Mao’s revolution and fleeing to Taiwan in 1949, where it imposed brutal martial law on the island for 38 years before democratizing in the 1990s.

Today, on the 50th anniversary of the PRC’s accession, the UN once again faces a credibility problem. It denies Taiwan and its 23 million citizens membership or even observer status, in an echo of its exclusion of Beijing in the previous century. The Chinese government’s claim on Taiwan, which it has never ruled, combined with its veto power, effectively block Taiwan from any meaningful UN participation, barring a change of heart in Beijing.

That does not appear to be coming anytime soon. Chinese diplomats hold more positions of influence within the UN system than any other country, and the UN and its specialized agencies treat Taiwan as part of the PRC.

In January, President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan “will keep pushing for our participation in the United Nations, and UN-affiliated meetings and events,” thanking the U.S. for voicing support for greater inclusion for Taiwan.

In a statement late Saturday, the U.S. State Department said American and Taiwanese officials had met virtually on Friday for a “discussion focused on supporting Taiwan’s ability to participate meaningfully at the UN.”

Leaders of the 14 remaining countries that officially recognize Taiwan’s government also frequently speak up on an excluded Taipei’s behalf.

Last month at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, Marshall Islands president David Kabua derided the “shameful silence” regarding Taiwan in the UN. “The democratic government of Taiwan should be allowed to participate in an equal and dignified manner within the UN system,” Kabua said.

Earlier this month when a Taiwanese politician criticized Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN as unfair, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry lashed out at the suggestion, citing General Assembly Resolution 2758 as proof that Taiwan was ineligible to participate in any capacity on its own within the body.

“Resolution 2758 embodies the legal facts recognized by the international community,” Zhao said. “We firmly reject such Taiwan independence rhetoric, which will garner no support in the world.”

China’s view is not shared by the U.S., which officially views Taiwan’s status as undetermined. Last Thursday a State Department official accused Beijing of twisting the intent of the resolution that gave it UN membership.

“The People’s Republic of China has misused Resolution 2758,” said Rick Waters, the U.S. State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for China, Taiwan and Mongolia. “Taiwan being blocked for participation in nearly all of the UN activities creates an immense cost, not just for Taiwan, but I think to UN members as well,” Waters said Thursday at a German Marshall Fund event on the resolution in Washington.

Activists set up a campaign on Times Square in New York on Sept. 14 to demand Taiwan be admitted into United Nations.   © AP

Taiwan’s exclusion from UN specialized agencies such as the World Health Organization and International Civil Aviation Organization has been criticized internationally, given its successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its status as a major aviation hub.

Resolution 2758 does not specifically mention Taiwan, it merely ejected “the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek.” The Chinese generalissimo, who ruled the island with an iron fist from 1949 to his death in 1975, always maintained that the Republic of China was the rightful claimant to the UN China seat.

“The representatives of Chiang Kai-shek were expelled in 1971 because they insisted that the ROC government was the only legitimate representative of China,” said Yu-Jie Chen, an assistant research professor at Academia Sinica in Taipei. “The stance of today’s Taiwan could not be further from that position.”

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen is technically the head of state of the Republic of China government that administers Taiwan, but she makes no claim on China’s territory. Beijing has threatened Taiwan with war if it were to remove the ROC government in favor of a nominally Taiwanese state.

Despite its exclusion from the UN, Taiwan has attempted to follow the organization’s norms from the sidelines. It has adopted three UN instruments as its own law, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The adoption of the ICCPR in 2009 has led to a dramatic reduction in use of the death penalty in Taiwan — the number of inmates on death row dropped from 64 in 2011 to 38 this year.

Julian Ku, a law professor at Hofstra University in New York, notes that Resolution 2758 deals only with which state has the credentials for the China seat at the UN, which has existed since the organization’s inception in the 1940s. The Republic of China was a founding signatory to the UN Charter.

“The resolution did not address the status of Taiwan or whether Taiwan should be a member state of the UN,” Ku said. “So the UN’s later interpretation of that resolution to resolve the question of Taiwan’s status is unsupported, in my view.”

One of the officials who has been on the front lines of Taiwan’s struggle for greater UN engagement is Joanne Ou, who now serves as spokesperson for the foreign ministry in Taipei. Prior to her current position, Ou worked in New York at Taiwan’s UN Task Force, and has dealt with UN-related issues for Taiwan for 13 years.

“The UN chose to ignore Taiwan and help the PRC block the Taiwanese people from participating in UN activities,” Ou said. “That is contrary to the spirit of the UN Charter — I am surprised by the incredible hypocrisy that reigns in the UN.”

While there may not be any clear path at the moment for Taiwan to participate in the UN as an observer or member state, officials and activists will continue to keep working toward that goal.

“We are seeing more countries speaking out for Taiwan,” said Borcheng Hsu, a member of the New York-based Keep Taiwan Free campaign. “It took the People’s Republic of China 20 years to join the UN — there must be a way for Taiwan to gain entry.”

Source: Nikkei Asia

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