Time to Welcome Taiwan Back into the United Nations

Abstract

he United Nations (UN), founded on the principles of sovereign equality and T nonaggression, was to be the framework within which the nations of the world resolved their differences under the banner of international law. Although some success can be attributed to the UN process, the realities of international relations over the past fifty years have kept the UN dream from becoming a reality. The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan is one such casualty of this failed system. An island-nation with a population of over 20 million, the ROC has been denied participation in the international community since 1971. Geopolitics, rather than the rule of law, became the standard by which the ROC's status was judged. Today Taiwan is a critical player on the international scene with the economic power and political will to participate fully in the international arena. But the ROC's participation in the world's foremost international body, the United Nations, is for the foreseeable future blocked by the People's Republic of China (PRC), with only a handful of small countries willing to advocate UN participation on their behalf. Why is the international community ignoring Taiwan's knock at the door? Why is UN participation important to Taiwan? What legal hindrances, if any, prohibit Taiwan from entering the UN family of nations? What implications for the UN system does Taiwan's exclusion bring? To provide some insight into these questions, I will analyze the historical background, the reasons why the ROC is pursuing UN membership, and the legal arguments for and against seating Tai-