Answer to UN quandary
I wonder if those who urge that Taiwan be accepted into the UN as a new member understand the procedure surrounding the process.
The General Assembly does admit new members. But it considers such applications only after receiving an affirmative recommendation from the Security Council. China, of course, is a veto-wielding mem-ber of the Security Council, and we can assume that veto will be used to block any such recommendation. Under these circumstances, the assembly will never consider Taiwan's application for membership.
Indeed, the only way to regain membership would be to revise and amend General Assembly resolution 2758, which expelled the ROC and awarded its seat to the PRC. Such an amendment, as an example, might provide that without prejudice to any future arrangement on unification to which the two sides can agree, both China and Taiwan should be seated in the assembly and throughout the UN system.
Please note that all prior assembly resolutions can, by a simple majority, be amended by a subsequent assembly.
But that would mean that Taiwan would have to be assured of the votes of at least 80 of the assembly's members.
I headed the US State Department Task Force when it attempted in 1971 to preserve ROC UN membership by calling for dual representation -- i.e. seats for both Taiwan and China. This was at a time when the Nixon administration was courting Beijing. Even though Henry Kissinger was in Beijing at the time, negotiating with Chou En-lai (
Had we won on that, we would have been able to pass the dual representation resolution as well -- and Taiwan would still be a member.
Harvey Feldman
US Ambassador, retired
Washington
UN bid a tough sell
The real problem behind Tai-wan's UN bid is that the Security Council can overrule the General Assembly with the unilateral veto powers of its five permanent members. If China uses its veto to block Taiwan's application, then Taiwan's bid will once again be rejected by the body. The UN, therefore, is not a truly democratic body and should never be regarded as the supranational model of a "One World" government.
If Taiwan is to stand as an international equal among nations, it must first fully establish that it is an equal under the law of nations. Many call Tai-wan a "country" by merely citing the simplistic treaty criteria of the Montevideo Convention of 1933 which lists four components of a country: geographical territory, a defined population, a competent government and an official capacity to conduct international relations with other countries.
This is too simplistic, because the reality is a "country" must be a legal entity having equal stand-ing under the law of nations in Article 4 of the convention. Unfortunately, neither the ROC nor the PRC were signatories to this pact. While recognition from other countries does not confer sovereignty upon Taiwan as a country, its standing as a juridical person under international law makes it an equal among nations.
Taiwan certainly has the defining characteristics of being a de jure state, but the legal organization of the juridical entity of a state of "Taiwan" is non-existent, especially under the law in force in that territory -- namely the law of the ROC.
In fact, Taiwan is quite legally occupied by an entity which is often called the "Republic of China," or "Chinese Taipei," or "Independent Customs Territory." But the ROC itself is beset by legal problems and overwhelming obstacles to broad diplomatic recognition.
What really compounds this problem of Taiwan's standing under international law is the inexplicable fact that the ROC on Taiwan has not even attempted to re-establish any recognizable treaty claim to Taiwan following the Japanese cession of the territory under the San Francisco Peace Treaty. In diplomatic circles, countries continually look at the "new" Japan-PRC peace treaty and willingly recognize the treaty terms of that most unfavorable, bilateral concession of Taiwan territory to the PRC in 1978.
Maybe the time has come for Taiwan's voters to politically contest their unfavorable and unequal international standing under the law of nations especially with the Allied Powers of the San Francisco Peace Treaty.
By conclusively legally defining the country under the Montevideo Convention, one would more clearly establish just which "government" of Taiwan has the equal standing under international law as a juridical person under the treaty. Perhaps then a UN bid will look more realistic.
Jeff Geer
Las Vegas, Nevada
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