On October 21, an official of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP) of the US Department of State made a baseless accusation against China at an event organized by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He claimed that China “misused” the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 to block Taiwan from participating in UN activities, and called for helping Taiwan to take part in them. Such comments disregard facts and are highly misleading. Their true purpose is to create “one China, one Taiwan”, and blatantly challenge the one-China principle. This is a serious political provocation to China and a malign distortion of international law and universally recognized norms governing international relations. China expresses its firm opposition and has lodged a solemn representation with the US side. I hereby want to stress three points:

   First, there is only one China in the world. Taiwan has been and will always be an inalienable part of Chinese territory. It is NOT an independent sovereign country. This is an iron-clad fact and a broad international consensus ascertained by a set of international treaties and agreements. The Cairo Declaration jointly issued by China, the US and the UK in 1943 states that all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadores, shall be restored to China. The Potsdam Proclamation issued in 1945 reaffirms that the terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out. Any attempt to challenge the one-China principle or to create “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan” is doomed to fail.  

   Second, the United Nations is an intergovernmental international organization composed of sovereign states. Article 4 of the UN Charter clearly states that only sovereign states have the right to become members of the United Nations. On October 25, 1971, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758, restoring the seat of the People’s Republic of China in the UN and all its legitimate rights. The UN and its affiliated agencies expelled the representatives of Taiwan authorities. As an inalienable part of Chinese territory, Taiwan has no right whatsoever to join the UN. The US official’s erroneous comments are a deliberate distortion and real misuse of Resolution 2758, and constitute a challenge to and blasphemy of the international conscience and the authority of the UN. They should be jointly condemned by the international community.

   Third, the US side, while claiming to adhere to the one-China policy, keeps using different tactics to upgrade its relations with Taiwan, help Taiwan expand its “international space”, and embolden the “Taiwan independence” forces. This has fully exposed its Cold-War mentality and sinister schemes of “using Taiwan to contain China”. We urge the US side not to underestimate the Chinese people's strong resolve, will and capacity to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and not to stand on the opposite side of the 1.4 billion Chinese people. We urge the US side to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the provisions of the three Sino-US Joint Communiques, exercise caution in words and deeds on the Taiwan question, and refrain from sending any wrong signals to the “Taiwan independence” separatist forces, so as not to seriously damage China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.