One China--The People's Republic

This week, Albania has again introduced a resolution calling for the seating of the People's Republic in the United Nations. Last year this Albanian resolution won a majority vote yet was defeated by a U.S. parliamentary maneuver. This year, America is again side-tracking the debate by raising the bogus issue of the expulsion of a member nation.

The People's Republic is the sole representative of the Chinese people. It justly deserves to occupy the China seat, denied to it for over twenty years.

President Nixon claims to support the seating of the People's Republic, but he also wants the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek's regime to retain a seat. This so-called "dual representation" scheme is nothing more than the dead-beat 'Two China Policy." America asserts that the People's Republic and Chiang each legitimately represents different segments of the Chinese people, and, as such, both deserve representation in the U.N. This is what Secretary of State Rogers claimed in his October 4 U.N. speech as "the reality of the current situation."

To the Chinese, there is only one China, represented by one government. This is the only point on which Mao and Chiang agree. They argue of course over which government is the legitimate representative. But any proposal which calls for a divided China is unacceptable. In effect, advocacy of any sort of two China, one China and one Taiwan, or dual representation policies is tantamount to opposition of the seating of the People's Republic. In addition, such proposals require the extraordinary procedures of annexing Taiwan from China and declaring the island to be a separate nation.

Nixon is putting full diplomatic pressure behind his Two China policy. He has allowed conservative Republican Senators to threaten openly to cut off American funds to the U.N. if the American plan fails and Taiwan is booted out. If these threats are carried out, the U.N. would be destroyed. Nixon claims to have no control over the Republican Senate caucus--just as he claimed to have no hand in the Vietnam elections. In his U.N. speech, Rogers put forth the new proposition that to expel Chiang's group from the China seat would evict a "member nation" of 14 million people. He warned that this would set a precedent. "The path of expulsion is perilous. To open it for one would be to open it for many."

Such fabrications serve as a naked threat to challenge the credentials of any nation America wishes to attack. No "member nation" is expelled by the change in credentials of the Chinese representative. This procedure has an established precedent in the U.N. In 1967 the revolution in Yemen ended before all territory was consolidated. The victorious revolutionaries filed in the U.N. for a new representation for the Yemenese people. The U.N. accepted the credentials of the new government and expelled the defeated regime, which had retained the support of scattered royalists. There was never a question raised of Two Yemens, only a problem of credentials of two governments claiming to represent one country.

For Nixon to create popular concern for the 14 million Taiwanese after America has held back the representation of 700 million people for over twenty years can only be viewed as the most cynical manipulation of public sympathies. Chiang Kai-shek is nothing but a dictator defeated in a civil was whose existing regime has been propped up by massive American military and economic aid. America's presence on Chinese soil and interference in the internal disputes of the Chinese are illegal acts of aggression as defined by international law. They are also an affront to the peaceful intentions and humanity of the American people. If Americans are concerned about the fate of the Taiwanese, they should demand that our government not interfere, but instead trust the Chinese to settle their own problems. As with our withdrawal from Vietnam, there is no reason to expect a blood bath when we leave Taiwan.

American administrations from Eisenhower through Nixon have tried continually to stall the seating of the People's Republic through the notorious "important question" trick. By a majority vote, the General Assembly can declare any motion on the floor an "important question" that motion then requires a two-thirds majority to pass. Last year that maneuver denied Peking its seat. Even though the Albanian resolution received a 51 to 49 vote majority, it failed to obtain the two-thirds vote needed to resolve an "important question."

Nixon will again attempt to gain passage of the "important question" road block; he will also push his "dual representation" formula. The people of China defeated Chiang Kai-shek twenty-two years ago. Americans must abide by this expression of popular will and end its interference in the internal affairs of the Chinese. The two resolutions America plans to submit before the General Assembly will attempt to legitimize the separation of Taiwan from the mainland. They should be defeated. We call for the passage of the Albanian resolution, giving the People's Republic full international recognition as the only representative of the Chinese people.