To secure peace in the Indo-Pacific, include Taiwan in the UN system

by LIN CHIA-LUNG Minister of Foreign Affairs ROC (Taiwan)

TAIWAN is an indispensable partner in global supply chains, producing more than 90 percent of the world’s high-end semiconductors and a significant portion of the advanced chips that are driving the AI revolution. Moreover, half of the world’s seaborne trade passes through the Taiwan Strait, making it a key international waterway.

Yet even though large parts of the world—and billions of people—have enjoyed great prosperity thanks to the peace and stability that prevails across the strait, China continues to intensify its aggressive actions against Taiwan. Beijing’s attempts to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and expand authoritarianism throughout the Indo-Pacific region are a profound threat to peace and security all around the world.

In recent years, global leaders have used both bilateral and multilateral occasions—including G7, EU, NATO, and ASEAN meetings—to highlight the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. However, despite being aware of the importance of reducing tensions in the region, the United Nations (UN), has yet to take action to address the challenges posed by the PRC or to incorporate Taiwan in the UN system.

As new approaches to engaging with Taiwan have emerged in the global community, yielding huge global benefits, the idea that there must be a choice between the PRC and Taiwan in the UN system is a false dichotomy. Now is the right time for the UN to evolve and to rethink its unjustified policies that exclude Taiwan.

The first and most urgent task that the UN must address is to stop succumbing to the PRC’s pressure and refrains from distorting UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 2758 adopted in 1971 any further. By wilfully misrepresenting Resolution 2758 and falsely conflating it with its own “one China principle,” which differs from the “one China policy” adopted by many countries, the PRC has relentlessly suppressed Taiwan’s legitimate right to meaningfully participate in the UN and its specialized agencies.

This misrepresentation has far-reaching consequences beyond denying Taiwanese citizens and journalists access to UN premises and preventing them from visiting, attending meetings, and engaging in news gathering. In fact, Beijing’s tactic of weaponizing Resolution 2758 to spread the fallacy that Taiwan is part of the PRC is one of the key elements in a wider campaign to establish the legal basis for justifying a future armed invasion of Taiwan.Yet, contrary to the PRC’s false claims, Resolution 2758 merely addresses the issue of China’s representation in the UN. It does not mention Taiwan. It neither states that Taiwan is part of the PRC nor ascribes to the PRC any right to represent Taiwan in the UN system.

In other words, the resolution 2758 has nothing to do with Taiwan.

This case is illustrative of the PRC’s growing assertiveness in imposing its will on the international stage.

And if left unchallenged and uncorrected, Beijing’s false claims will not only alter the status quo across the Taiwan Strait but also jeopardize peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and threaten the rules-based international order.

Thankfully, in recent months, several senior US officials have criticized the PRC’s distortion of Resolution 2758 to justify its spurious claim over Taiwan.