United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 (XXVI)

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758, adopted on October 25, 1971, replaced the Nationalist Republic of China (ROC) with the Communist People's Republic of China (PRC) as the sole representative of China in the United Nations.

History

The Chinese Civil War resulted in 1949 with the Communists in control of mainland China and the Nationalists in control of Taiwan. The Communists declared the People's Republic of China as the successor state of the Republic of China, while the Nationalists championed the continued existence of the Republic of China as the sole legitimate Chinese government. In the context of the Cold War, both sides claimed to be the only legitimate Chinese government, and countries recognizing one were forbidden to have diplomatic relations with the other. Until the 1970s, the ROC retained the recognition of most countries in the world.

Since China (represented by ROC) held a permanent Security Council seat, it could veto the admission of all new members. This prevented the PRC from applying as a separate member or having the ROC formally expelled from the UN. By making the PRC's representation, and the ROC's exclusion, the matter of legitimacy arose. The PRC and its supporters were able to bypass the Security Council and take the issue to the General Assembly, where the growing influence of the third world made success more likely.

Article 3 of the UN Charter provides:

The original Members of the United Nations shall be the states which, having participated in the United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco, or having previously signed the Declaration by United Nations of 1 January 1942, sign the present Charter and ratify it in accordance with Article 110.

On 15 July 1971, 17 UN members requested that a question of the "Restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations" be placed on the provisional agenda of the twenty-sixth session of the UN General Assembly, claiming that the PRC, a "founding member of the United Nations and a permanent member of the Security Council, had since 1949 been refused by systematic manoeuvers the right to occupy the seat to which it is entitled ipso jure".

On 25 September 1971, a draft resolution, A/L.630 and Add.l and 2 was submitted by 23 states, including 17 of the states which had joined in placing the question on the agenda, to "restore to the People's Republic of China all its rights and expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek."

On 29 September 1971, another draft resolution, A/L.632 and Add.l and 2, sponsored by 22 members, was proposed declaring that any proposal to deprive the Republic of China of representation was an important question under Article 18 of the UN Charter, and thus would require a two-thirds supermajority for approval. A/L.632 and Add.l and 2 was rejected on 25 October 1971 by a vote of 59 to 55, with 15 abstentions.

Also on 25 October 1971, the United States moved that a separate vote be taken on the words "and to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek from the place which they unlawfully occupied at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it" in the draft resolution. This motion would have allowed the PRC to join the UN as China's representative, while allowing the ROC to remain a regular UN member (if there are enough votes for it). The motion was rejected by a vote of 61 to 51, with 16 abstentions. The representative of the Republic of China stated that the rejection of draft resolution A/L.632 and Add. l and 2 calling for a two-thirds majority was a flagrant violation of the Charter which governed the expulsion of Member States and that the delegation of the Republic of China had decided not to take part in any further proceedings of the General Assembly. The Assembly then adopted draft resolution A/L. 630 and Add.l and 2, by a roll-call vote of 76 to 35, with 17 abstentions, as Resolution 2758.

The UN recognized the PRC as the legal government to represent China. And according to the One China policy, ROC existed in the UN not anymore. As Rogers had forecast, the dual recognition motion never made it to the floor. The important question motion failed and the Albanian motion then came to the floor and passed. ROC ambassador to the UN, Liu Chieh, then withdrew and after that the PRC ambassador to the UN, Qiao Guanhua and the delegation entered the hall.

Although the ROC ministry documents highlight the role of Chow, clearly Chiang was leading the government as well as the KMT. The foreign minister simply implemented the president's policy. Nixon and Kissinger may have chosen Beijing instead of Taipei, but it was Chiang who cost Taiwan its seat at the UN.

Controversy

Some viewpoint asserts that the Resolution 2758 has solved the issue of China's representation in the United Nations, but left the issue of Taiwan's representation unresolved in a practical sense. The ROC government continues to exercise sovereignty over Taiwan and surrounding islands. While the PRC claims sovereignty over the whole China including Taiwan islands, it does not, nor ever has, exercised it. The ROC government does not claim sovereignty over the Chinese Mainland until recently and its present policy seeks to represent the area it controls in diplomatic matters. The ROC's legal status in contemporary times somewhat mirrors that of the PRC pre-1971.

The Resolution has been criticized as illegal by the Republic of China government, since expulsion of a member requires the recommendation of the Security Council and can only occur if a nation "has persistently violated the Principles contained in the present Charter," according Article 6.

The Government Information Office of the Republic of China asserts:

So flawed is this Resolution that only its effective repeal by the General Assembly can provide any hope of expunging the stain on the U.N.’s escutcheon in the international system. Taiwan partially adopted this strategy, and attempted to begin a debate on the repeal of Resolution 2758 during the Fifty-Second General Assembly. Although turned aside in 1997 by the P.R.C.’s energetic diplomatic lobbying, the issue of the R.O.C.’s status at the U.N. will not disappear.

Some viewpoint calling for review of Resolution 2758 noted, "As to its return to the United Nations, the Government has made it clear that it no longer claims to represent all of China, but that it seeks representation only for its 21.8 million people".

According to the UN website[1], no member state has ever been expelled from UN since its inception. From the viewpoint of the UN, the change of the representation of China in the UN only reflected the de facto government change after the Chinese civil war. The representative right of China as a member state has never been expelled out of the UN, and what was expelled were only the unqualified representatives of China, at the same time the UN accepted the qualified ones from the government PRC as the legal representative of the whole sovereignty of China, including Taiwan islands.

Supporters of ROC admission to the UN argue that the resolution only asserts that the PRC is the legitimate government of China, but makes no mention of the ROC being an illegitimate government, nor of which (if either) is the legitimate ruler of the island of Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu, and the Pescadores.

Opposers of ROC admission to the UN argue that the PRC is the sole legitimate government of China with Taiwan islands as part of it. The representation of Taiwan islands is already included in Chinese representation in the UN. So the application for the representation of Taiwan in the UN raises the problem of the dual representation of the same region, which is against the generally accepted principle of international laws.

From the viewpoint of the PRC, the ROC is no longer the international legitimate representative government of China since the Resolution 2758, and only the PRC represents the whole sovereignty and territory of China, including Taiwan islands.

Supporters of Taiwan admission to the UN argue that the resolution only asserts that the PRC replaces the ROC as the legitimate representative of China, but makes no mention of the sovereignty issues regarding the island of Taiwan and the Pescadores.

Recently, the UN rejected Taiwan membership bid “joining the UN under the name of Taiwan” with citing its adherence to the One China policy agreed under the UN Resolution 2758, which acknowledges Taiwan is a part of China. [2] Regardless of the concerns from US and Beijing, Taiwanese government still plans to push ahead with a referendum on joining the UN alongside presidential and legislation elections next year, which is generally regarded as a serious independence-leaning move.

See also

• China and the United Nations
• United Nations General Assembly Resolution 505