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The day Taiwan withdrew from the UN ~ Still unable to rejoin | Will anything happen with the return of the Trump administration?
Japan does not recognize North Korea as a state, but there are 151 countries that do, and North Korea is also a member of the United Nations. For this reason, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists the number of countries in the world as 196, excluding North Korea, but in certified textbooks, it seems to be written as 197, including North Korea, considering that North Korea is a member of the United Nations. The difference with Taiwan is the number of countries that recognize it as a state and whether it is a member of the United Nations or not.
Currently, there are 13 countries that recognize Taiwan as a state, and Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations. The fact that there are 13 countries that recognize Taiwan as a state means that Taiwan is a country for those 13 countries, and that they have embassies and diplomatic relations. So what about the fact that it is not a member of the United Nations?
Currently, there are 195 countries that Japan recognizes as states, and among them, the Vatican, Kosovo, Cook Islands, and Niue are not members of the United Nations. However, Japan has diplomatic relations with them and officially recognizes them as states. In that case, whether or not a country is a member of the United Nations does not determine whether it is a country or not, but rather seems to depend solely on whether or not countries recognize it as a country. How is a country defined internationally? This is shown in the 1933 "Montevideo Convention," which lists the following requirements for statehood: 1. Permanent population, 2. Clear territory, 3. Government, and 4. Ability to have relations with other countries.
Looking at Taiwan, it is considered to meet all of the requirements of this treaty. There are 13 countries with which it has diplomatic relations, and it seems that how to evaluate the ability to have relations with other countries is a question, but this is largely due to the fact that China is hindering it internationally and it cannot establish diplomatic relations. Considering the national requirements shown in the Montevideo Convention, Taiwan meets the national requirements and is recognized as a country by 13 countries, and the reason this number does not increase is because of interference from China, and it cannot join the United Nations for the same purpose. It would be correct to see it this way.
The UN membership conditions require the approval of 9 of the 15 council members, and if even one of the permanent members opposes, the recommendation for membership cannot be made, so as long as China is a permanent member, it will not be possible for Taiwan to join the UN. So has Taiwan never been able to join the UN? Not at all. It's strange that it's not often mentioned in Japan, but Taiwan was a permanent member of the UN.
At the end of the war, Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration, but the countries listed as counterparts were the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of China. This is the Republic of China in Taiwan today. After the war, the United Nations was established in 1945, and the Republic of China, led by Chiang Kai-shek, was the permanent member at that time. After the war, Chiang Kai-shek returned to Nanjing and established a constitution, but the second Chinese civil war began. In 1949, the People's Republic of China declared its founding with Beijing as its capital, and the Republic of China resisted but continued to be defeated, and in December of the same year, it moved its capital to Taiwan. At this time, the Republic of China in Taiwan was still a permanent member of the United Nations. This situation continued for 22 years until 1971. For 26 years since the establishment of the United Nations, the Republic of China was a permanent member.
So what happened in 1971? The United Nations' Albanian Resolution was proposed. This is a resolution on China's representation submitted jointly by 23 countries, including Albania, which has a close relationship with the People's Republic of China. The resolution called for the People's Republic of China, which effectively controls mainland China, to be recognized as the representative government of China, and for the expulsion of the Republic of China from the United Nations. After some twists and turns, the resolution was changed from expulsion of the Republic of China to expulsion of Chiang Kai-shek's representative.
This resolution was a dispute over which government was the legitimate permanent member of the UN, and passed with 76 votes in favor, 35 against, 17 abstentions, and 3 absent. Japan persuaded Chiang Kai-shek to stay in the UN, and submitted the "Resolution on Important Issues Against Expulsion" and the "Resolution on Dual Representation" jointly with the United States. The "Resolution on Important Issues Against Expulsion" stated that such matters related to UN seats are important matters, and should be decided by a two-thirds majority in accordance with Article 18 of the UN Charter, but this was rejected by a majority, and the "Resolution on Dual Representation" was never voted on after the Albanian resolution passed. This "Dual Representation Resolution" proposed that the People's Republic of China would be the permanent member of the Security Council, and the Republic of China would maintain the remaining seats.
Now, in protest against the passing of the Albanian Resolution, Chiang Kai-shek left the UN chamber, and the Republic of China withdrew from the UN. This was a form of voluntary withdrawal. Strictly speaking, the resolution itself was the expulsion of Representative Chiang Kai-shek from his seat, so it can be said that the path for the Republic of China to remain in the UN was left open. And the "One China Principle" that China is currently talking about was not recognized by this Albanian Resolution, but merely a vote by the representative government on one side or the other.
The UN has stated that no country has ever been expelled from the UN in the past. The conditions for suspension are written in Article 5 of the UN Charter, but it is unlikely that this issue of representation would conflict with this, so it is thought that the Albanian Resolution also changed the original wording of the expulsion of the Republic of China to the expulsion of Representative Chiang Kai-shek. Regarding whether this was the expulsion of the Republic of China or the expulsion of Representative Chiang Kai-shek, there are both in Japanese information, and the original text is published in the American document, which says it was the expulsion of Representative Chiang Kai-shek.
If you think about it this way, you can see that at that time, if Chiang Kai-shek had stepped down as the government representative, the Republic of China could have joined the United Nations as a separate country from the People's Republic of China. Of course, it is not realistic for Chiang Kai-shek to step down as representative. In 1947, the Republic of China was under a military regime that imposed martial law for 38 years from 1949, which was the exact opposite of the democratic model of Taiwan today, and the international community at the time questioned the country's national administration in that sense as well. This 38 years of martial law is said to be the longest in human history.
The Albanian Resolution is the basis for China's current claim that the international community supported the One China principle, but such a resolution has never been made. The US government has officially stated that the issue of representation has been resolved, but the issue of sovereignty over Taiwan has not.
However, since the People's Republic of China was recognized as an official permanent member of the UN, one country after another sought diplomatic relations with China, and in exchange, China sought to break off diplomatic relations with Taiwan. It applied pressure by hinting at the veto power of the permanent members. In this context, Japan established diplomatic relations with China in 1972, and the United States also established diplomatic relations thereafter. In return, it ended up breaking off diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
The important point is that the Albanian resolution decided which government would represent China, but the issue of sovereignty over Taiwan was not resolved here. The US government has also officially announced this. China claims that this resolution confirmed the One China principle.
Democracy in Taiwan
At the first-ever Sino-Taiwan summit in November 2015, President Ma Ying-jeou and Xi Jinping confirmed that mainland China and Taiwan belong to China and maintain the "one China" principle and the "ninety-two common knowledge."The birth of President Tsai Ying was in May 2016, so it happened only half a year ago.
President Lee Teng-hui's "two countries" (China and Taiwan are different countries) were easily overturned here, returning to the position of one country, two systems, and one China.With the birth of President Tsai Ying-cheng and the current trend of leaving China, Taiwan's independence theory is still in its infancy.The dramatic reversal of Tsai's re-election in 2020 is that the Kuomintang candidate had a higher approval rating until just before.
Taiwan's first direct presidential election was in 1996.It's been about 25 years.
Biden said, "China should have a good conversation with Taiwan's democratically elected leader.I said.What does this mean?In Taiwan's presidential election in 2024, the Democratic Progressive Party and the Kuomintang received 28.3 percent and 21.9 percent respectively.Historically, Taiwan has been leaning toward China or moving toward independence, but this pendulum-like problem will continue as long as it holds elections as a democratic country.Only the annexation of China or the declaration of independence can end the problem.The Biden administration is in favor of "one China policy."
China's "one China principle " and the United States' "one China policy " are different.China regards Taiwan as part of China's "one China principle," the U.S. "one China policy" means recognizing China's representative government as the People's Republic of China, not Taiwan as part of China.It is only acknowledged that China is making such a claim.At first glance, East Asia's policies seem to follow Trump's, but they are fundamentally different.It also implicitly conveys that if the pro-China faction wins again in Taiwan, the U.S. will not interfere.
If Taiwan does not specify independence, it will be asked whether it will reach China or independence every election, and that will be an opportunity for China to take advantage of it.
One country, two systemsThe concept of "one China" is not a matter of independence, but of mainland China's sovereignty.Chiang Kai-shek insisted that the Republic of China was a legitimate government throughout China and refused to persuade Japan and the U.S. to stay at the United Nations by changing their views on China.This will be the beginning of everything.
President Lee Teng-hui first came up with the concept of "special relations between countries" in 1999.During the Chen Shui-bian period, he expressed the two countries were different countries across the Taiwan Strait.During the Ma Ying-jeou era, he said he would maintain the 92 consensus in 1992 (the agreement to recognize a Chinese concept but to recognize each other's difference about interpretations).From here we return to one China.
President Tsai said she did not recognize the 92 agreement. If we do not recognize each other's difference , we will go back to not only rejecting one country, two systems, but also each other's difference, which will be used by China to deny Taiwan sovereignty.
Looking at Taiwan's constitution, it is disturbing.The preamble to the Constitution reads, "Based on the teachings of Dr. Sun Zhongshan, who founded the Republic of China."As can be said in the Korean Constitution, the Constitution is the starting point of domestic law and should not be cited.
I don't know what path Chae will take in the future, but we have to overturn almost all of the previous presidents' interpretations, including constitutional revision.It's a very difficult task, but I want you to accomplish it.
From the perspective of Ukraine war, Taiwan is same case emergency.What position should we take on Taiwan?
What would happen if we looked at the Taiwan issue in response to NATO's unilateral move to the military demarcation line by joining Ukraine?The Japanese media have put Russia and China on the same page, and what if China invades Taiwan like Russia?Is this really the only way to build a theory?Why don't Japan and the U.S. want Taiwan to belong to China?This is because China want to shifted dramatically the military demarcation line.
In Japan, lawmakers argue that if Taiwan is taken, it will be the Senkaku Islands.In the Albanian resolution, the United Nations decided to make the People's Republic of China the representative government of China.The U.S. and Japan agree that the issue of representation itself does not mean that Taiwan will lose its independence, but neither Japan nor the U.S. has no agreement on document, and has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan and has not approved it.This is the basis for China's claim that Taiwan is China.Currently, only 15 countries have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.Among them, only 13 countries expressed their support for Taiwan's participation at the U.N. General Assembly in September 2021, without Japan and the United States.
In this case, the policy that Taiwan would be separated from China, recognized independently, established diplomatic relations, and signed a treaty with allies are similar to Russia's plan to protect Lugansk and Donetsk.On the contrary, China, like Ukraine, will criticize the U.S. and Japan and send defense forces.In other words, we are sitting on the Russian side of the Taiwan issue.
Originally, Ukraine was considered a Taiwan issue, but it was a military demarcation line issue before the issue of national sovereignty.Past history has shown that unilateral changes in the military demarcation line could lead to war.What China wants to do is take over Taiwan and change the military demarcation line significantly.If NATO is in this situation, how can it defend Taiwan militarily?
It goes without saying that Japan must cooperate with the U.S. to face China in order to defend Taiwan.We need to make it clear that we will not allow changes to the military demarcation line.