Taiwan has the right to join international bodies and establish diplomatic relations with other countries as UN Resolution No. 2758 does not involve Taiwan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said on Thursday.
Lin made the statements regarding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ efforts to increase support for Taiwan in the international community to enable its participation in international bodies.
Lin said that the ministry would continue to build international support for Taiwan’s participation in international bodies and fight against the misinterpretation of UN Resolution No. 2758.
Photo: CNA
The UN Assembly passed Resolution 2758, in 1971, which said that the assembly recognized the People’s Republic of China as “the only lawful representatives of China” to the international body.
The issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty or representation at the UN was beyond the resolution’s purview, he said.
To exclude the nation from the UN and its affiliate organizations, Beijing has been erroneously asserting that the resolution expressed an opinion on Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) asked what tangible actions were being undertaken to address the resolution’s misinterpretation, to which Lin said that the US has researched the resolution’s legal integrity and communicated with “third parties, including ones that have and do not have official diplomatic ties” with Taiwan.
The Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) on Sunday reported sources as saying that two US Department of State assistant secretaries had recently visited Taiwan, met with foreign representatives from 20 countries in Taiwan and told them that UN Resolution 2758 does not involve Taiwan nor should it be conflated with China’s “one China” principle.
Lin said that the interpretation of UN Resolution 2758 has been twisted, with many countries not aware that the resolution does not bar Taiwan from participating in international organizations or establishing diplomatic relations with other nations.
Citing the original resolution, Lin said it only decided to “expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek” at the UN, and did not mention Taiwan.
If Taiwan does not react, China’s use of legal warfare to make it an “internal” matter in the eyes of the international community would be successful, Lin added.
Lin compared China’s interpretation of the UN Resolution 2758 to the so-called “1992 consensus” and said that if no one bothered to look into the claims, they would be led to the erroneous belief that they had substance.
Lin said Taiwan has been excluded from the UN network due primarily to China’s willful misinterpretation of the resolution and the UN bowing to Beijing’s pressure.
Beijing has also seeded a significant number of officials within the international body and has been donating extensively to specific projects within the UN, which has further led UN agencies to either side with China or look the other way, Lin said.
The “1992 consensus” — a term that former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS