China sees red after the Australian Senate rejects UN resolution 2758 for Taiwan status
The Xi Jinping regime is fuming after the senate in Australia, a QUAD partner, passed an urgency resolution on Wednesday rejecting Beijing’s misinterpretation of the UN resolution 2758 and the international law regarding Taiwan’s status.
While Beijing response is expected within a day or so, the Australian senate resolution moved by Senators David Fawcett and Deborah O’Neill has made it clear that the UN resolution was limited to a seat in the global body and has nothing to do with either ‘One China’ policy or the status of Taiwan.
Senator O’Neill stated : “ Taiwan is a leading Indo-Pacific democracy and an important partner of Australia. We share with Taiwan a commitment to an open, inclusive and stable Indo-Pacific region.”
Senator Fawcett apparently highlighted the impact of PRC’s strong arm tactics and warned that the distortion of UN Resolution 2758 would weaken UN’s integrity and increase the challenge to international rule based order.
China has been using UN resolution 2758 to push its ‘One China’ narrative with the entire world and coerces small countries and African nations to reiterate this narrative in all of the bilateral statements. It used to be a standard mantra for joint statements with India before 2010.
While China uses the UN 2758 to buttress its claim that Taiwan is just another province of the PRC, the Australian interpretation is that the resolution was only limited to transfer of UN seat from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China. The resolution was passed on October 25, 1971 after the US under Richard Nixon had pushed for a détente with the PRC as a counter-weight to the erstwhile USSR.
It is understood that other Australian senators supported the resolution stating that it directly affected the peace and security of the Indo-Pacific and asked the PRC to stand down from its aggressive behavior against Taiwan. One senator even called for escalation of military activities targeting Taiwan.
The Australian motion follows the launch of the 2758 initiative to reject what they call Chinese distortion of the UN Resolution and support Taiwan’s claim for meaningful participation in UN agencies and beyond.