Taiwan is a fully functional democracy with a constitution and democratically elected leaders. Over the past seven decades its political system has matured and it is completely different from communist China. It is consistently ranked as one of the freest countries by the Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders freedom indices, as well as the Heritage Index of Economic Freedom.
Taiwan’s economic and political growth has been remarkable. It is one of Asia’s major economies and a leader in the global semiconductor industry. Only 13 UN members recognize Taiwan and about 59 countries, including India, have established unofficial diplomatic relations with it.
Taiwan is an independent nation without a seat in the UN. The main hindrance to it being given full UN membership is China.
In the 17th century, Taiwan became a Dutch colony. It regained its independence briefly before being taken over by imperial China. In 1895, after the First Sino-Japanese War, it became a Japanese colony. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, Taiwan was put in the care of the Republic of China (ROC). It became a founding member of the UN as the ROC, where it remained until 1971.
When then-US president Richard Nixon established relations with Mao Zedong (毛澤東), the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was recognized as the official representative government of China as per UN Resolution 2758.
The UN resolution did not clarify the status of Taiwan or say that Taiwan was part of China. It was also silent on the “one China” principle. The PRC has twisted its interpretation of the resolution to insist that the “one China” principle be universally followed.
It is time to set this anomaly right by formally admitting Taiwan to the UN. First, to prevent Taiwan being militarily annexed by China, or through illegal means. Second, it must be done for the sake of Taiwanese and the humanitarian principles on which the UN is premised.
Since the establishment of the PRC in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been falsifying history to justify its hegemonic and territorial ambitions. In 1949, the PRC usurped East Turkestan as Xinjiang. In 1956, it invaded Tibet and forced it to accede to the PRC. After signing an agreement with India in 2003, the PRC started claiming the Indian state Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet based on false narratives.
China propagated the “nine-dash line” through an imaginary history, making claim to 90 percent of the South China Sea. It built artificial islands and militarized them despite international promises not to. In 2020, it usurped Hong Kong in a gross violation of the treaty it signed with UK.
Over the past seven decades, the Korean War, the Sino-Indian War, the Sino-Vietnam War and Sino-USSR skirmishes are testimony to the PRC’s military aggression. As recently as 2020, the PRC has been militarily assertive in the South China Sea and along the Sino-Indian “line of actual control,” aiming to alter the “status quo” in its favor through salami-slicing tactics. The display of force across the Taiwan Strait after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei last month leaves very little to the imagination in its intent to annex Taiwan.
Taiwan is the antithesis of Chinese communism and authoritarianism, and Taiwanese refute this authoritarian model. Polls indicate that 87 percent of Taiwanese do not want to be controlled by China and 73 percent are willing to take up arms to defend against a Chinese invasion.
The UN last month released a report on the Chinese treatment of Uighurs, stating that crimes against humanity and serious human rights violations have been committed in the guise of counterterrorism. Reports indicate that millions of people in Xinjiang have been detained in “re-education” centers.
This is comparable to indications by Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye (盧沙野) that Taiwanese would be “re-educated” if the nation were to unify with China. The fate of 23 million Taiwanese would likely be similar to the 25 million people of Xinjiang. On a purely humanitarian basis, Taiwan needs to be admitted as a UN member state to prevent it being usurped by China.
Taiwan is involved in bilateral trade and economic agreements with many countries and blocs including the PRC, the US, the EU, Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea and India, to name a few. As the world’s 18th-largest economy, Taiwan is fully integrated in world affairs.
As an undisputed leader in the semiconductor industry, the nation is key to the development of robotics, artificial intelligence, cybertechnology, communications, space exploration and energy conservation. Taiwan’s technological prowess is critical to the world in combating climate change, the effects of which are visible in disasters that plagued China, Pakistan and Europe this summer.
Keeping Taiwan on the sidelines of global institutions is self-defeating. Although some effort has been made to include Taiwan in global governance, it has been less than reasonable or fair.
Taiwan would find it difficult to declare independence for fear of retribution from Beijing. From the violent Chinese reaction to Pelosi’s visit, it is clear that if the PRC cannot annex Taiwan militarily, it could destroy the nation with the might of its missiles and reduce it to rubble. That would be a human catastrophe.
The UN needs to facilitate the incremental, but full integration of Taiwan into international organizations. Influential members such as the US, Japan, the UK, France, Germany, South Korea, Australia and India must champion Taiwan’s cause. China would strongly object, but so be it. It is time to approach China head-on before it is too late. If restructuring the UN system is required to do so, it must be done.
India understands Taiwan’s plight as it is also a victim of Chinese machinations. It is time that India and Taiwan enhance cooperation on all fronts to stymie Chinese designs and ensure that Taiwanese get the status, dignity and justice they deserve as a progressive nation. It is time that Taiwan is granted full membership of the UN.
Lieutenant general P.R. Shankar PVSM, AVSM, VSM is a former director general of artillery in the Indian army. He is a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and writes extensively on strategic and geopolitical affairs.
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