Beijing's UN: Montenegro in, Taiwan (pop., 23 million) still out
UNITED NATIONS — The small and democratic Balkan nation of Montenegro, a land of 625,000 people, gained UN membership earlier this year. This former part of ex-Yugoslavia became the 192nd member of the UN. In the meantime an East Asian island democracy of 23 million people, whose government was a founder of the same world organization in 1945, remains barred from United Nations admission by the rival Chinese government in Beijing.
Stressing the principle of universality which would certainly apply to admitting the island of Taiwan which remains a prosperous Asian democracy, the memo adds that Taiwan’s membership can also help to maintain peace and stability in Asia and the Pacific. Of course the request was blocked in committee by Beijing.
Later during the actual general debate nearly twenty states, including the Presidents of El Salvador, Paraguay and Malawi, among others, called for Taiwan’s membership in the world body.
A little history. As one of the victorious Allied powers at the end of WWII, the Republic of China was a signatory to the UN Charter in San Francisco. Thus the Chinese Nationalists also assumed the coveted role as a Permanent Member of the Security Council. But civil war would soon to destroy and divide China, with Mao Tse-tung’s communists occupying the Mainland the Nationalists going to Taiwan. Significantly, the continuing legal personality of the Republic of China government (which dates to 1912), rests in Taiwan.
Tragically like Germany and Korea, China too remains a divided nation, with two separate governments—one in Beijing and the other in Taipei. While the People’s Republic of China gained the “China” UN seat back in 1971, Taiwan for all practical purposes has been banned, ostracized and kept out of an organization it help to found.
Before unification in 1990, Germany held two UN seats one for the Federal Republic in the West and another for the East German communists. To his day, there are two Korean seats, The Republic of Korea for the South and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the North. This reflects sober reality.
The logic is compellingly simple — the Republic of China on Taiwan holds the classic criteria for statehood and thus UN membership.
But being realistic Taiwan’s crude ostracism from the UN has nothing to do with fairness but everything to do with Beijing’s bullying. Fairness and justice often means little in the global community, just ask the people of Darfur today, or the Balkans a decade ago.
Still the actual request beyond its expected opposition from People’s China, also had a legal flaw. It states: “The Republic of China (hereafter referred to as Taiwan) is a free and peace loving sovereign state and its democratically elected government is the sole legitimate government that can represent the interests and wishes of the people of Taiwan in the United Nations.” True, but the use of “Taiwan” as the prospective members name raises entirely new issues. While this states a fact, there are no countries in the world who recognize any legal entity called Taiwan any more than anyone recognizes Holland, officially known as the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Twenty-Four countries do recognize the Republic of China government which happens to be on Taiwan.
Above all one of the few things both the Beijing communists and the Taipei democrats agree upon (non withstanding some loud voices for total Taiwan independence) is that they are both Chinese albeit in a very different socio political mold. Any tampering with this fragile political formula can shatter the status quo across the Taiwan straits and trigger military action by the People’s Republic of China which boastfully claims sovereignty over Taiwan.
Importantly Beijing Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing when addressing the General Assembly did not mention Taiwan at all, leading some observers to believe that there’s a welcome lull in the war of rhetoric across the Taiwan Straits. In the not too distant past PRC delegates offered blunt warnings to Taipei.
As Lamin Kabba Bajo, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the West African state of the Gambia implored before the Assembly, “The legitimate request of the people of Taiwan for a voice and standing in the United Nations must no longer be ignored.”
Sadly it still is.
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