In recent months, the complex Taiwan issue has been characterised by a component that can be conventionally described as “legislative-legal”.

The interpretation of UN Resolution 2758

In the propaganda element of the multi-faceted struggle between the US and the PRC over the Taiwan issue, the issue of the “true content” of UN Resolution 2758, adopted in October 1971, is regularly updated. It should be remembered that this resolution forced the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek’s government (the “Republic of China”), which at the time was based in Taiwan, to cede to the government of the People’s Republic of China both a seat in the UN as a whole (i.e. in the international structures associated with it, such as the World Health Organisation) and a permanent seat on the Security Council.

However, it is not officially Washington that is engaged in public reflection on this issue, as it has declared its respect for the “one China” principle since 1979, when diplomatic relations with Beijing were established. This principle is also enshrined in the above-mentioned resolution, but in 1971 the US was one of 34 countries that voted against its adoption. Eight years later, Washington was forced to accept it as an indispensable condition imposed by Beijing for the establishment of those very official relations. The former desperately needed them, since the Cold War with the USSR had by then reached the highest level of aggravation, and it was particularly urgent to draw the PRC into its “own camp”.

It is therefore left to some “independent experts” to engage in the above-mentioned reflections. The current “case” follows the contradictory results of Taiwan’s parliamentary elections earlier this year, which saw the separatist Democratic Progressive Party retain the presidency, while the opposition now has a majority in parliament. This makes life much more difficult for the new president, William Lai, who continues to position the island as an “independent country” on the international stage.

At the end of April, a report on the interpretation of Resolution 2758 was published by B. Glaser, a fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, who has visited the People’s Republic of China several times without restriction. The report served as the basis for a symposium that would probably have been........

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