China rebuked US efforts to boost Taiwan’s participation in UN organizations, saying that the nation has “no right” to join the world body a half-century after it was booted out.
“The United Nations is an international governmental organization composed of sovereign states,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) told a regular news briefing in Beijing yesterday.
“Taiwan is a part of China,” Ma said. “The People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. Taiwan has no right to join the United Nations.”
Photo: US Coast Guard via AP
Ma was responding to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s call on Tuesday for countries to join the US in pushing to give Taiwan a greater role at the UN.
Taiwan should “abandon the illusion of relying on the US for independence,” Ma said.
The Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times separately published an editorial accusing Blinken of trying to upgrade Washington’s approach toward Taipei and opening a “new offensive” on Taiwan.
China would not “step back an inch” on the issue, the Chinese-language edition of the newspaper said, adding that the call would be rejected by most UN members.
While the government in Beijing replaced Taipei’s as China’s representative at the UN in 1971, the Chinese Communist Party did for a time allow Taiwan to participate in some international organizations, such as the WHO.
Beijing has sought to roll that back since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was elected in 2016 and refused to accept that both sides are part of “one China.”
“Taiwan’s exclusion undermines the important work of the UN and its related bodies, all of which stand to benefit greatly from its contributions,” Blinken said in a statement.
“That Taiwan participated robustly in certain UN specialized agencies for the vast majority of the past 50 years is evidence of the value the international community places in Taiwan’s contributions,” Blinken added.
Despite the “tens of millions of passengers traveling annually through its airports,” Taiwan was not represented at the International Civil Aviation Organization assembly, Blinken said, adding that Taipei was also absent from the World Health Assembly, despite the world having “much to learn” from its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blinken’s comments come after US President Joe Biden last week said that the US is committed to defending Taiwan from a Chinese attack, in some of his strongest comments yet, as the administration faces calls to clarify its stance.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese