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China says that 1971’s UN resolution 2758 gives international legal backing to its claims over Taiwan.
TAIPEI/BEIJING – Taiwan’s government on Oct 1 said China was trying to create the legal basis for a future attack with its “misleading” interpretation of a key UN resolution, in an escalating dispute over who has the right to claim sovereignty over the island.
China says that 1971’s UN resolution 2758, which led to Taiwan's expulsion from the body and Beijing assuming a seat at the UN, gives international legal backing to its claims over the island, and reiterated that point in a long foreign ministry statement late on Sept 30.
Taiwan, formally called the Republic of China and whose government fled to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war with Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s communists, says that is nonsense given the resolution made no mention of Taiwan and that in any case, the People’s Republic of China has never ruled the island.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that China was “deliberately misleading” the international community with its characterisation of the resolution.
“This aims to create a legal basis for altering the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and for future military assault against Taiwan,” it said.
“Only Taiwan’s democratically elected government can represent the 23 million people of Taiwan within the United Nations system and multilateral international mechanisms,” the ministry added.
In response, China’s foreign ministry told Reuters that no matter what Taiwan says, it does not change the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are part of “one China” and that “reunification” would happen.
China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and regularly sends its military into the waters and skies around the island.
China says Taiwan is merely one of its provinces.
Its foreign ministry’s statement on Sept 30, full of Cold War-era language about the “reactionary” Republic of China government and its late leader Chiang Kai-shek's “clique”, said the People's Republic was the rightful inheritor to governing all of China, including Taiwan, following the 1949 revolution.
“Any attempt to challenge resolution 2758 constitutes not only a challenge to China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, but also a challenge to the authority of the UN,” it said.
China has been incensed by remarks from the United States and some of its allies about the resolution.
The US State Department, in comments provided to Reuters about the latest Chinese statement on the subject, said the “intentional mischaracterisation and misuse of resolution 2758” was part of China’s broader “coercive attempts to isolate Taiwan from the international community resolution”.
The resolution puts no limits on any country’s sovereign choice to engage substantively with Taiwan, the US State Department added. REUTERS
Southern-Chain-6485 on October 4th, 2025 at 13:42 UTC »
Why wouldn't Beijing just frame it as a Chinese civil war and thus, an internal Chinese matter? The One China principle easily allows that description.
ImperiumRome on October 4th, 2025 at 11:42 UTC »
China is thinking too hard about this, they should just learn from Putin the art of making bogus claims and invade anyway.
Joke aside, the sad truth of realpolitik is that this won’t matter, the legality (or lack there of) of an invasion won’t stop China from invading Taiwan, nor will it stop anyone else from trading with China afterwards if they see fit.
Lone-T on October 4th, 2025 at 07:43 UTC »
SS: China says that 1971’s UN resolution 2758, which led to Taiwan's expulsion from the body and Beijing assuming a seat at the UN, gives international legal backing to its claims over the island. Taiwan says that is nonsense given the resolution made no mention of Taiwan and that in any case, the People’s Republic of China has never ruled the island.
US state department has backed Taiwan and stated China is trying to misinterpret UN statement and ensure Taiwan is isolated.