United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758, titled Restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations, was adopted on 25 October 1971 to change China's representation in the UN. It recognized the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations, and expelled "the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek" (referring to the then Kuomintang regime as the dominant party in the Republic of China, whose government had retreated to Taiwan from the mainland) from the United Nations.
In the 2020s, disputes over the interpretation of the resolution have arisen, with the United States, Canada, the European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, and Taiwan itself disagreeing with the PRC's interpretation about conflating the resolution with its one China principle and using it against Taiwan's right of participation in international organizations.
Background The Republic of China (ROC) was founded in 1912 in mainland China, and expanded its jurisdiction to Taiwan in 1945. In 1945, it became one of the 51 original member states of the United Nations, which was created in 1945. At that time, however, it was embroiled in civil war: the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, was fighting troops led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This lasted until 1949, when Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing and the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan, from which the Empire of Japan had withdrawn in 1945 and to which it would in 1951 renounce all right, title and claim. By January 1950 the PRC was in control of mainland China but was unable to capture Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen or Matsu, and thus these remained Kuomintang-ruled.
Although the ROC government continuously claimed that it would one day return to its mainland, by the 1970s, an increasing number of UN members became aware that this government no longer represented the hundreds of millions of people who lived on the mainland. The PRC claimed to be the successor government of the ROC, while the Kuomintang in Taiwan championed the continued existence of the Republic of China. Both claimed to be the only legitimate Chinese government, and each refused to maintain diplomatic relations with countries that have recognized the other.
Between 1950 and 1970, several votes were held regarding the PRC and UN membership, but the votes did not pass. The ROC continued to represent China in the UN until Resolution 2758. In addition, the ROC had signed and ratified the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations on April 18, 1961, and December 19, 1969, respectively. However, by the late 1960s, concerns regarding human rights had rapidly surged, turning the tables of the situation. It was now the ROC government that was becoming increasingly isolated, while China's communist regime slowly abandoned its ostracism.
Proceedings at the United Nations On 15 July 1971, 17 UN members: Albania, Algeria, PR Congo, Cuba, Guinea, Iraq, Mali, Mauritania, North Yemen, Romania, Somalia, South Yemen, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Yugoslavia, and Zambia, requested that a question of the "Restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations" be placed on the provisional agenda of the twenty-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly. In an explanatory memorandum accompanying their request, the 17 UN members observed that for years they had protested against what they considered were hostile and discriminatory policy followed by several governments with regard to the CCP's government of mainland China, which they considered to be the genuine representative of the Chinese people. The existence of the People's Republic of China, they declared, was a reality which could "not be changed to suit the myth of a so called Republic of China, fabricated out of a portion of Chinese territory". In the view of the 17 UN members, the ROC were unlawful authorities installed in the island of Taiwan which claimed to represent China, and they remained there only because of the permanent presence of United States Armed Forces. No important international problems, they added, could be solved without the participation of the People's Republic of China. It was in the fundamental interests, they concluded, of the United Nations to "restore" promptly to the People's Republic of China its seat in the organization, thus putting an end to a "grave injustice" and "dangerous situation" which had been perpetuated in order to fulfill a policy that had been increasingly repudiated. This meant the immediate expulsion of the representatives of the Chiang Kai-shek regime from the seat which it held in the United Nations.
On 17 August 1971, the United States requested that a second item, "The representation of China in the United Nations" also be placed on the provisional agenda. In the explanatory memorandum accompanying the U.S. request, the U.S. said that in dealing with the problem of the representation of China, the United Nations should take cognizance of the existence of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China; it should reflect that incontestable reality in the manner in which it made provision for China's representation. The U.S. asserted that the UN should not be required to take a definitive position on the respective conflicting claims of the People's Republic of China or the Republic of China, pending a peaceful resolution of the matter as called for by the United Nations Charter. Thus, the U.S. added, the People's Republic of China should be represented and at the same time provision should be made to ensure that the Republic of China was not deprived of its representation.
On 22 September 1971, the United States proposed at the UN General Committee that the two items be combined into one item called "The Question of China". The proposal was, however, rejected by 12 votes to 9 with 3 abstentions.
On 25 September 1971, the first Albanian-backed draft resolution, A/L.630 and Add.1 and 2, was submitted by 23 states including 17 of the states which had joined in placing the question on the agenda, to: "...restore to the People's Republic of China all its rights and expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek."
On 29 September 1971, a second draft resolution, A/L.632 and Add.1 and 2, sponsored by 22 members including the U.S., was proposed declaring that any proposal to deprive the Republic of China of representation was an important question under Article 18 of the UN Charter, and thus would require a two-thirds supermajority for approval.
On 29 September 1971, a third draft resolution, A/L.633, sponsored by 19 members including the U.S., was proposed by which the Assembly would affirm the right of representation of the People's Republic of China and recommend that it be seated as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, while also affirming the continuing right of representation of the Republic of China.
On 15 October 1971 the representatives of 22 UN members requested the UN Secretary-General to distribute, as an official Assembly document, a statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China dated 20 August 1971. In this statement, made in response to the U.S. letter of 17 August 1971 and its accompanying explanatory memorandum, the People's Republic of China declared that the U.S. proposal was a blatant exposure of the Nixon government's scheme of creating "two Chinas" in the United Nations. It added that there was only one China, the People's Republic of China. Taiwan, it continued, was an inalienable part of Chinese territory and a province of China which had already been returned to the motherland after the Second World War. It went on to state that the U.S. was plotting to separate Taiwan from China and was wildly attempting to force members of the UN to submit to its will. The Chinese government declared that the Chinese people and government firmly opposed "two Chinas", "one China, one Taiwan", or any other similar arrangement, as well as the claim that "the status of Taiwan remains to be determined". They declared they would have absolutely nothing to do with the UN in such scenarios.
Discussion at the Assembly took place at 12 plenary meetings between 18 and 26 October 1971 with 73 member states taking part. During the debates four more draft resolutions were submitted - three by Tunisia and one by Saudi Arabia. Broadly, each of these draft resolutions was a variation on the third draft resolution described above, backed by the U.S. Notably, the Saudi-proposed resolution would have held that the people of the island of Taiwan had a right to self-determination. Similarly, the Tunisian resolution would have called for the Republic of China government to be represented in the United Nations under the name "Formosa".
Algeria's representative in the debates submitted that to recognize that the government of the People's Republic of China was lawfully entitled to represent China did not imply the eviction of a member but the eviction of the representatives of a dissident minority regime. The U.S., in its submission, took the opposite view; arguing that adoption of the resolution expelling the representatives sent from Taipei would imply the termination of the membership of a longstanding member. The spokesman of the Republic of China submitted that his country had earned its place in the United Nations by virtue of its contribution to peace and freedom during the Second World War. He said the CCP's government, which had never had the moral consent of the Chinese people, could in no way be regarded as the representative of the great Chinese nation. Various members including two permanent members of the security council, the United Kingdom and the USSR, argued that requiring the matter to be subject to a supermajority vote was not appropriate because the adoption of the Albanian proposed resolution did not involve the admission or expulsion of a member. Rather it concerned only credentials and Taiwan had never been a member. They argued there was only one Chinese state that was a member. Any other Chinese state would have to apply for membership in accordance with the Charter.
On 25 October 1971, the voting took place. In the first vote held, the Assembly rejected the U.S. backed proposal that the matter would require a supermajority vote — the 'important question motion' [A/L.632 and Add.1 and 2]. The Assembly then voted on a separate U.S. proposal that the words "and to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek from the place which they unlawfully occupied at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it" be removed from the draft resolution A/L.630 and Add.1 and 2. The U.S. representative suggested that this motion, if adopted, would "have the effect of welcoming the PRC to the General Assembly and the Security Council, while at the same time not affecting the representation of the ROC in this hall". The motion was rejected by a vote of 61 to 51, with 16 abstentions.