UN Resolution 2758 did not address Taiwan’s representation in the UN, the Taiwan International Solidarity Act passed by the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee says.
The bill was introduced in the US House of Representatives in February to amend the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act of 2019.
Photo: AP
The amendment was passed by the committee with a voice vote without objection and would be sent to the House of Representatives for consideration.
Photo: AFP
The bipartisan TAIPEI Act was introduced in the US Congress in 2019 and signed into law in 2020 to “express United States support for Taiwan’s diplomatic alliances around the world.”
It requires the US to advocate for Taiwan’s membership in international organizations and support the nation to bolster diplomatic ties with countries around the world.
The amendment includes new paragraphs calling on the US, as a member of any international organizations, to “oppose any attempts by the People’s Republic of China to resolve Taiwan’s status by distorting the decisions, language, policies, or procedures of the organization, and for other purposes.”
UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 established the representatives of the government of China as the only lawful representatives of China to the UN, the amended bill says.
“The resolution did not address the issue of representation of Taiwan and its people in the United Nations or any related organizations, nor did the resolution take a position on the relationship between the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan or include any statement pertaining to Taiwan’s sovereignty,” it adds.
Beijing interpreted the resolution adopted in 1971 to exclude Taiwan from international organizations and their affiliates.
In the resolution, the UN General Assembly decided to “expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it.”
The amendment also reiterates that the US “opposes any initiative that seeks to change Taiwan’s status without the consent of the people.”
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked the US Congress for its bipartisan support of Taiwan’s participation in international organizations.
Passing the bill ahead of the 76th World Health Assembly, which is to begin this weekend, is especially meaningful, the ministry said.
Taiwan has not received an invitation to attend the meeting of the top decisionmaking body of the WHO for the sixth consecutive year due to pressure by China.
US representatives Michael McCaul, who chairs the committee, and Gregory Meeks, its former chairman, backed the bill, saying that excluding Taiwan from the UN system would be a disservice to the world, the ministry said.
Additional reporting by CNA
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
RSS