In an attempt to redirect Taiwan's annual campaign to rejoin the UN, President Chen Shui-bian (
Through a video conference with the international media in New York, Chen sent out a clear message about the Taiwan government's strong will and ability to become a UN member.
For over a decade, the government has launched a series of campaigns to raise the question of a "return" to the UN under the ROC name, but these attempts received 11 straight rejections by the General Assembly. Although Taiwan's bid was again defeated this year, the Chen administration has injected new and decisive force into the nation's UN strategy.
By clarifying that Resolution 2758 of the General Assembly -- passed in October 1971 -- only deals with the People's Republic of China's (PRC) right to representation in the UN and its subsidiary organizations, Chen de-linked the PRC's UN representation with Taiwan's own pursuit for UN membership and its subsidiary organizations. As Chen pointed out, "Taiwan is Taiwan. Taiwan cannot and will not fight for the right to represent China."
Resolution 2758 recognized the PRC as the sole and legitimate government of China and thus granted the Beijing regime the seat in the General Assembly. This resolution constitutes the greatest hurdle for the Republic of China in returning to the UN.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government's maneuvering on Taiwan's participation in the UN is a manifestation of its recent advocacy for a clearer identification of "Taiwan" as a country. Chen's virtual meeting with UN journalists provided an opportunity for the DPP government to intensify its efforts to educate the international community that Taiwan and China are individual countries -- and that Taiwan's participation in the UN is not the problem, but rather the solution to the "one China" dispute.
Using the name "Taiwan" to apply for new membership faces the same obstacles the old government has encountered because to become a new member of the UN, Taiwan must receive the support of at least nine of the 15 members of the Security Council, including unanimous consent from its five standing members, which includes the PRC. Moreover, a new application requires approval by a two-thirds majority vote from the members of the General Assembly.
Just because these challenges seem insurmountable does not mean Taiwan should just passively wait and see what happens. Strengthening Taiwan's bid for UN membership is the ultimate goal. The key now is to counteract Beijing's international propaganda by reinforcing international understanding that Taiwan is not a part of China, and that Taiwan will not compete with Beijing on the issue of representing China in the UN.
Moreover, the straightforward adoption of the name "Taiwan" represents a growing collective will through democratic choices that the 23 million people in Taiwan want to become active and contributing members of the world community.
Therefore, as Chen emphasized, a free and democratic country like Taiwan should not be the "missing piece" in the UN's principle of universality. Taiwan's absence in the UN has left its 23 million people without an internationally acknowledged identity and has turned them into international vagabonds, victims of political apartheid.
In sum, it is evident that any attempt to knock on the UN's door under the rubric of the "Republic of China" is a dead end. The government and people of Taiwan should build on their progress in human rights and democratic consolidation and "participate" in, rather than "rejoin" the UN.
By doing so, it will pave the way for the world to distinguish a "democratic Taiwan" from both the authoritarian China represented by the PRC and the authoritarian China represented by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
Liu Kuan-teh is a Taipei-based political commentator.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS