United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 - Controversy

Controversy

Some viewpoints assert that 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 hold control over Taiwan and other islands. While the PRC claims sovereignty over all of China and claims that Taiwan is part of China, it does not exercise sovereignty over Taiwan, and has never done so. The ROC government claimed sovereignty over the Chinese Mainland until recently but 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.

On the other hand, although policy has changed, and the ROC Government now focuses on representing the interests of the island of Taiwan, formally, the ROC still claims to be the Chinese State, and thus its juridical claim to the right to govern the whole of China still holds. Most importantly, although Taiwan has been governed by the ROC as a de facto separate country, de jure Taiwan is still a part of China, as Taiwan has never declared its independence. Indeed, the pursuit of independence from China is a controversial issue in Taiwanese politics. Thus, China being still legally one single country including the Mainland and Taiwan, the question facing the General Assembly was that of deciding which is the legitimate Government of China: the Government controlling the whole of the Mainland, or the Government deposed from the Mainland and in control of an archipelago only. From the assumption of power by the Communists and the proclamation of the PRC until 1971, the ROC Government remained the representative of China before the UN, although it had lost almost all of the territory. With the Resolution, the UN simply recognized the PRC as the legitimate Chinese Government, that from 1949 until 1971, had been deprived of its right of representing China.

The ROC, however, frames the issue as one involving "the expulsion of a member". 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 to 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.

Under its independence-leaning president, Chen Shui-ban, Taiwan attempted to apply for membership under the name "Taiwan", saying, "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". However, the current ROC administration under Ma Ying-jeou has dropped attempts to join UN as a new member state.