Correction needed
Jerome Keating’s essay (“Decoding Taiwan-China Rhetoric,” March 14, page 8) contains a number of inaccuracies and exaggerations.
I would never suggest that Keating “do his homework.” After all, he is a retiree spending his golden years in Taiwan.
For example, Keating writes that “the Republic of China [ROC] was kicked out of the UN in 1970.” For starters, Taipei occupied a seat on the UN Security Council throughout 1970. Moreover, the ROC was never “kicked out of the UN.”
Rather than suffer the humiliation of expulsion from the UN in October 1971 (not 1970), Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) ordered the ROC delegation to walk out of the global body.
Legal experts in Taiwan complain that this move was a tactical blunder as it makes any return to the UN even more difficult.
Finally, UN Resolution 2758, which passed after Taipei’s walkout, never mentioned the ROC or Taiwan.
Rather, it called for “the expulsion of the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek.” Some consider this an opening for Taiwan to someday gain admission to the UN.
Dennis Hickey
Distinguished Professor, Missouri State University,
Springfield, Missouri
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