Last week Taiwan's application to enter the UN under the name "Taiwan" was rejected by the UN Sec-General. The reason?Taipei - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that Taiwan cannot join the United Nations because UN members consider Taiwan part of China, the Central News Agency (CNA) said on Saturday.
CNA said that Ban made the remark - his first open statement on Taiwan's controversial application for UN membership - on Friday while visiting a US company in San Jose, California.
Ban made the remark in response to a question posed by a CNA reporter about whether a rejection of Taiwan's application would pose a violation of the UN Charter which upholds the principle of 'universality of membership.'
In reply, Ban said when the UN passed Resolution 2758 in 1971 to expel Taipei and accept Beijing, that resolution recognized China as the sole legitimate representative of China and that Taiwan was part of China.
'The UN's decision (on rejecting Taiwan's application) is based on this,' he told CNA, adding that the UN observes the 'one China' policy.
Naturally, UN 2758 nowhere says Taiwan is part of China. Take a look for yourself:
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 (XXVI)
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
Recalling the principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
Considering the restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China is essential both for the protection of the Charter of the United Nations and for the cause that the United Nations must serve under the Charter.
Recognizing that the representatives of the Government of the People's Republic of China are the only lawful representatives of China to the United Nations and that the People's Republic of China is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council,
Decides to restore all its rights to the People's Republic of China and to recognize the representatives of its Government as the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations, and to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-Shek from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it.
In addition to scoring at the UN, China also received another ally in the form of Nepal, with which it has increasingly close relations:
Nepal's official media Saturday carried a statement issued by its foreign affairs ministry saying Nepal 'firmly opposes attempts by the Taiwan authorities to push for joining the UN under the name Taiwan'.
Nepal is also opposing Taiwan's decision to hold a referendum on joining the UN to bolster its application.
'Such attempts by Taiwan under any name or by any means would only lead towards destabilisation in the region,' Nepal's foreign affairs ministry said.
'Nepal believes that peace and stability must be maintained in the Taiwan straits to contribute to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and international community at large.'
After King Gyanendra ascended the throne in 2001 and began vying for an active part in the government, exceeding the role given to him by the constitution, the government, under his influence, began asserting public support for Beijing's 'One China' policy.
Why did Nepal take this step? Money talks:
After the king declared himself head of the government, though the move was condemned by the international community, China supported the regime, calling the coup an internal matter of Nepal. It also supplied arms to the royal government though Nepal's other arms donors suspended lethal supplies in protest.
In return for the support, the then royal government issued a public statement, expressing support for the One China policy.
The fresh support now comes after a 12-member Chinese team visited Nepal this week and signed an agreement worth RMB 50 million.
Headed by Assistant Commerce Minister Wang Chao, the Chinese team said the assistance was meant to build the Syafrubeshi-Rasuagari road in northern Nepal and to provide logistic support to the crucial election, to be held on Nov 22.
China has also reportedly shown interest in extending a line of credit worth Nepali Rs. 8 billion to build a 61 MW hydropower project.
Nepal has requested the visiting delegation to increase Chinese aid for building infrastructure in Nepal and give duty-free access to over 400 Nepali trade items.
Scenting an opportunity in China's doubled bid to win over the new Nepal government after its controversial support to King Gyanendra, Nepal also asked the minister to modify an aircraft sale contract which is causing Nepal a huge loss.
King Gyanendra's regime had ordered two aircraft at inflated prices from China, a deal that is both embarrassing and loss-making for the cash-strapped new government.
Earlier, though the eight-party government asked China to cancel the deal, Beijing opposed it firmly. Now Nepal is asking China to reconsider the deal and sell one aircraft instead of two.
China's influence extends further into the Himal, a key but little-recognized flashpoint, in this case between China and India. The King's policy follows Beijing's in claiming that Tibet and Taiwan are both part of China. This is probably not a wise policy for a small buffer state trapped between China and India, especially one that recognized tributary status to the Qing Dynasty in the 1850s.
[Taiwan] [Nepal] [China] [UN]
So, has anybody mailed Ban Ki-moon a copy of Resolution 2758 for his bathroom reading entertainment?
ReplyDeleteNaturally, UN 2758 nowhere says Taiwan is part of China.
ReplyDeleteI think this is one of the weaker arguments of the pro-Taiwan side. Legally, Ban is quite correct. UN 2758 doesn't have to explicitly state that Taiwan is a part of China, because it was implicitly understood.
UN 2758 stated that the ROC government of CKS unlawfully occupied the UN as the legitimate representative of China, (of course the ROC included Taiwan within its own definition of 'China').
So what the UN vote did was replace the government of ROC with that of the PRC while leaving the definition of China unchanged, a definition which included the territory of Taiwan.
The US tried to get around that by requesting a separate vote on the clause '...expel forthwith the representatives of CKS...", but it lost.
If Taiwan wants to obtain UN recognition, it will have to convince the UN to rethink its definition of China, something I don't think even the ROC has formally done.
I think this is one of the weaker arguments of the pro-Taiwan side.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't even aware that it was an argument of the pro-Taiwan side!
Legally, Ban is quite correct. UN 2758 doesn't have to explicitly state that Taiwan is a part of China, because it was implicitly understood.
It was not implicitly understood. You only have to read the debates, in which many countries sought to preserve some kind of representation for Taiwan. Rather, the understanding and wish of the many in the body was to seat the PRC while preserving some option for Taiwan. But the fricking ROC government decided to pull out entirely.
Michael
I wish to point out nowwhere in the ROC constitution says Taiwan is part of ROC. Neither did any of the prior drafts. Taiwan was a foreign territory when ROC was established in 1912.
ReplyDeleteThat won't work, t_co. Once this strategy of bluster and threatening war proves successful, China will try it someplace else. Taiwan is not the last piece of the puzzle, it is the first step.
ReplyDeleteMichael
Hm, Mike, I do remember commenting on this thread, but somehow I can't find my comment...
ReplyDeleteI don't know, t-co, why your comment isn't here. I replied to it, too. Strange.
ReplyDeleteMichael