Wikileaks - 2007: UN told to drop ‘Taiwan is part of China’ by US

[jimmy olsen]

Very good.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2011/09/06/2003512568

UN told to drop 'Taiwan is part of China': cable
TERMS OF REFERENCE:Other countries were also urged to tell the UN that they too were unhappy with its use of terminology when referring to Taiwan
By J. Michael Cole  /  Staff Reporter

A number of Western governments, with the US in the lead, protested to the UN in 2007 to force the global body and its secretary-general to stop using the reference "Taiwan is a part of China," a cable recently released by WikiLeaks shows.

The confidential cable, sent by the US' UN mission in New York in August 2007, said that after returning from a trip abroad, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had met then-US ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad to discuss a range of issues, including "UN language on the status of Taiwan."

"Ban said he realized he had gone too far in his recent public statements, and confirmed that the UN would no longer use the phrase 'Taiwan is a part of China,'" said the cable, which was sent to the US Department of State and various US embassies worldwide.

During a meeting with then-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on July 27 that year, Ban had defended the UN's decision not to accept a renewed attempt by Taiwan to join the UN on July 23 by saying that UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 asserted that Taiwan was a part of the People's Republic of China.

"Membership is given to a sovereign country. The position of the United Nations is that the People's Republic of China is representing the whole of China as the sole and legitimate representative Government of China," Ban had said in response to a question on Taiwan's status. "The decision until now about the wish of the people in Taiwan to join the United Nations has been decided on that basis. The resolution that you just mentioned [2758] is clearly mentioning that the Government of China is the sole and legitimate Government and the position of the United Nations is that Taiwan is part of China."

The same month, the US was reported to have presented a nine-point demarche in the form of a "non-paper" to the then-UN under-secretary-general for political affairs restating the US view that it took no position on Taiwan's sovereignty and rejected recent UN statements that the world body considers Taiwan for all intents and purposes to be an integral part of China.

The cable said that the UN missions of Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand had also consulted with the UN on the subject, adding that in reaction to the US demarche, the Canadian mission had followed with a demarche of its own and "received the same commitment that the UN would no longer use the phrase."

It added that Australia had held similar low-level exchanges with the UN's Office of Legal Affairs (OLA), while the Japanese mission had met OLA Assistant Secretary-General Larry Johnson, who confirmed "that in his most recent correspondence on this matter to the correspondence from the Solomon Islands and Swaziland he had dropped the unhelpful phrase."

The US' UN mission also urged New Zealand "to make clear to the UN that they too are monitoring the UN's terminology and that they share USG [US government] concerns about the need for increased caution during the presidential campaign in Taiwan."

[Ideologue]

Mainland China is a renegade province.

[MadImmortalMan]

The ghost of Nixon haunts us still.

[Camerus]

Is the existence of an independent Taiwan really of fundamental strategic importance to the US?  At what point do the drawbacks of supporting the RoC against the PRC outweigh the benefits?  I would posit that the threshold is not very high.

[jimmy olsen]

We should support Taiwan's independence on the principle of the matter.

If that's not enough for you, possession of Taiwan means that China would have control of the sea lanes connecting the ROK and Japan to the Middle East. Possession of Taiwan would also greatly enhance the Chinese industrial and technological base.

[Martinus]

Why is it very good? What's the point of supporting one cronyist cleptocratic country against another?

[Admiral Yi]

Why is it very good? What's the point of supporting one cronyist cleptocratic country against another?

I don't know how to break it to you Marty, but Chiang Kai Shek is dead.

[The Brain]

Is the existence of an independent Taiwan really of fundamental strategic importance to the US?

No it's not. But keeping your bargaining chips as long as you can makes sense.

[Camerus]

Is the existence of an independent Taiwan really of fundamental strategic importance to the US?

No it's not. But keeping your bargaining chips as long as you can makes sense.

That's a fair enough assessment and one that I can agree with.  But the problem then becomes knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

[Camerus]

We should support Taiwan's indepence on the principal of the matter.

Oh, he offered you a job there, did he?

[Tamas]

China wants Taiwan because of posterity, and the US defends it for the same reason. Nothing changes, and everybody is happy.

[Josquius]

Yeah pretty much, China is just going through the motions of continuing to claim Taiwan these days.
Of course, if things go to shit in China (as they will sooner or later) then they might look for a way to get the plebs supporting the government....

[Eddie Teach]

Why is it very good? What's the point of supporting one cronyist cleptocratic country against another?

Because it weakens the other.

[Sheilbh]

We should support Taiwan's independence on the principle of the matter.

Taiwan's not declared independence and they don't want it.  One China!

[dps]

We should support Taiwan's independence on the principle of the matter.

Taiwan's not declared independence and they don't want it.  One China!

Yeah, if we wanted to stand on principle, we should go back to recognizing the ROC as the legitimate government of all of China.  Even on a practical level, that wouldn't force us to abandon trade with the mainland, and it's not like we need to be able to use the PRC as a counterweight to the USSR anymore.