My Take | No need to argue, UN Resolution 2758 is entirely about ‘one China’

From day one – that is October 25, 1971 and thereafter – UN Resolution 2758 has always been about “one China” and its rightful representative in the world of nations. Even Taiwan’s current constitution acknowledges one China, it just disputes who its rightful and legitimate representative government is.

Then, recently, because Taiwan is increasingly being exploited by the United States and a handful of allies as a diplomatic, strategic, technological and military asset against mainland China, the history and meaning of the UN resolution is deliberately being distorted and misrepresented.

Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the UN, tweeted on X last week that the resolution never mentioned Taiwan and so doesn’t concern the island. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China Policy in July launched something called the 2758 Initiative, involving parliamentarians in their respective countries to try to pass resolutions to reject the one-China meaning of the UN resolution.

The Taiwanese government under the Democratic Progressive Party has been increasingly emboldened to undermine the UN resolution. That’s a stealthy path to independence without an outright declaration.

Even former president Tsai Ing-wen took a more cautious and ambiguous stance on the UN resolution. Now, though, her successor William Lai Ching-te is going for broke. The island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has now appealed to the UN General Assembly, which opens next week, to stop denying it membership and representation within the global body.

“China falsely claims that Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and has authorised the PRC to represent it,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang said at a news conference this week.

“Such a claim negates the fact that the Republic of China (Taiwan) is a sovereign nation and has legitimate rights to be part of the UN.”