CHINA AND THE U.N.- TIME FOR REAPPRAISAL
Bailey, Sydney D.
China and the U.N.— Time for Reappraisal by SYDNEY D. BAILEY Last October, the General Assembly decided by forty-two votes to thirty-four (with twenty-two abstentions) not to consider any proposal...
...that the United States must stand by Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists on Taiwan...
...Would it be possible for the United States to make a gift of surplus grain to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and for the F.A.O...
...Their presence does not make the United Nations a more harmonious institution, but the United Nations is not just a club for the like-minded...
...First, it would be useful to explore various arrangements whereby the Central People's Government of China could increasingly be brought into the stream of world affairs, without actual United Nations membership...
...On political and legal grounds, it seems to me essential that efforts be made to bring the Peking government into the United Nations as "the Republic of China"—but this is to state a problem, not to solve it...
...I questioned the wisdom of the decision at the time...
...The friends of the United States, many of whom have voted with her on this question, are wondering how the issue can be dealt with in the future without putting an intolerable strain on the Western alliance...
...Is it inconceivable that, if there should be a slight but genuine improvement in Sino-Western relations, the Peking government would find some occasion to declare its support of those articles of a treaty banning tests of nuclear weapons which have already been agreed upon by the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain...
...This was a proposal for the provision of food surpluses to food-deficient peoples through the United Nations system...
...This was the eleventh time the Assembly had refused to examine this question...
...This is not a "Two Chinas" solution, which is rejected in both Peking and Taipei...
...A second step would be to begin normal personal and trade relations between China and the rest of the world...
...I do not see how the United Nations can deal realistically with such crucial political issues as nuclear tests or disarmament without the participation of representatives of mainland China...
...they must be considered separately...
...I doubt the value of debating the situation in Tibet in the absence of the accused...
...The government in Peking may prefer that Chinese people should be hungry rather than eat United States food...
...The United Nations issue is something different, and as a non-American I feel no inhibition about expressing an opinion on the matter in a responsible United States journal...
...Peking may be willing to accept the obligations and privileges of United Nations membership only on conditions which are unacceptable to the non-Communist world...
...If suffering is to be avoided, China needs grain from abroad...
...The United Nations exists precisely because nations do pursue contrary policies...
...Many governments, including my own, have pursued policies which have seemed to me to endanger the peace of the world, but I think it is SYDNEY D. BAILEY, former correspondent for The Economist of London, is engaged in research activities for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace...
...it may have been the last...
...The point at issue is whether "China" should be represented by Peking or Taiwan...
...Finally, there is a matter which may no longer seem crucial when this article appears in print...
...As far as we can tell now, in February, there are areas of China in which food is short...
...There is no veto in the General Assembly...
...It is true that the Soviet bloc countries have rejected all proposals to enlarge the Security Council until Peking occupies the Chinese seat, but it might be possible to initiate quiet and exploratory exchanges of view in the hope that the questions of the size of the Council and the question of membership and representation can be settled concurrently...
...I find these assertions understandable, though I question whether they lead to the conclusion that United States interests are now served by a policy of non-recognition...
...The unknown author of the Letters of Junius wrote that "Facts are apt to alarm us more than the most dangerous principles...
...It is undeniable that the government in Peking effectively controls the Chinese mainland, and to recognize this fact of life involves no moral judgment about the character and policies of the Peking regime...
...Moreover, there would still be a number of things which could be done to stabilize and improve the situation in the Far East...
...A fourth step which would surely have a favorable effect on developments in the Far East, and which would not lessen the security of Taiwan, would be the withdrawal from the offshore-islands (Quemoy and the Matsus) of Kuomintang forces and those civilians wishing to leave...
...The question of who should represent China in the United Nations affects us all, and when the issue comes to be voted on, the votes of all the ninety-nine members of the United Nations will count the same...
...China and the U.N.— Time for Reappraisal by SYDNEY D. BAILEY Last October, the General Assembly decided by forty-two votes to thirty-four (with twenty-two abstentions) not to consider any proposal to seat representatives of Communist China in the United Nations...
...The United States must recognize the fact that the Peking government effectively controls the Chinese mainland...
...The question has political and legal aspects...
...that any weakening of the Western attitude towards Communist China would be regarded by the free nations of Asia, particularly those in which there are substantial communities of overseas Chinese, as an abandonment of their cause...
...A way to avoid some of the problems of the donor-recipient relationship may lie in a proposal sponsored by the United States and five other countries in the United Nations General Assembly last October, and approved unanimously...
...But the question of diplomatic relations is a matter for debate by Americans and Chinese...
...That would be regrettable, but not disastrous...
...He served several years as representative of the Friends World Committee at the United Nations...
...The principle is written into the United Nations Charter, and the people on Taiwan (both those who were born there and those who have fled there) are as entitled as any other people to invoke the principle...
...The Kennedy Administration has inherited a position on this question which, to the rest of the world, seems less and less realistic each year...
...The United States possesses embarrassingly large quantities of surplus grain...
...desirable that erring governments should be in the United Nations...
...The trade embargo, except on clearly strategic materials, should be reviewed...
...the Peking government must recognize the fact that the Nationalist regime effectively controls Taiwan...
...The facts about continental China and Taiwan cannot be changed without war...
...As an Englishman who has enjoyed the benefits of United States aid, I know how much more difficult it is to receive than to give...
...The isolation of Communist China is possibly one of the reasons why her rulers have adopted increasingly doctrinaire and intransigent views...
...It is true, of course, that Britain and America agreed at Cairo in 1943 that Taiwan should be restored to China after the war...
...You can only do two things about facts: change them or accept them...
...I am confident the pages of The Progressive would be open to alternative or supplementary views...
...to make a loan of grain to China on the understanding that the grain would be repaid when conditions in China permitted and would then be used to help other hungry people who might need grain at that time...
...The important thing is for the United States and its supporters to abandon a policy which is^ regarded in many parts of the world as unrealistic and dangerous...
...it certainly should not now be used as a pretext for handing over Taiwan as if it were a hunk of uninhabited real estate...
...Third, negotiations should be initiated at the United Nations on a revision of the membership of the Security Council...
...Communist China is a great power, and the fact that I happen to dislike the ideology and methods of her rulers seems to me to have little bearing on whether or not she should be represented in the United Nations...
...it is, in the words of the Charter, "a center for harmonizing the actions of nations . . ." Whatever may have been the intentions of the founding fathers, the United Nations has increasingly approached the principle of universality of membership...
...It is said that the Peking government does not represent the true will of the Chinese people and that it has been guilty of aggression...
...My fifth suggestion is addressed to the Communist government of China (though I confess that The Progressive may not be so widely read in Peking as it is elsewhere in the world...
...The arguments against establishing diplomatic relations with Communist China are well known...
...If, by a free decision, the majority of people on Taiwan opted for union with the Communist-run mainland, the United Nations should do all it could to facilitate the change peacefully, while providing opportunities of exile for the minority who preferred a different government...
...Is there no connection between these facts...
...This is not, of course, a United States or Western decision...
...Communist China has not applied for membership, since "China" is already a member...
...We have heard a good deal in the United Nations about self-determination...
...It is easy to find fault with all of the suggestions I have made: I am aware of many disadvantages...
...Some enlargement may be necessary so that the new states of Asia and Africa can be more adequately represented...
...It may well be that Peking or Taipei or some other government will refuse to countenance any solution based on present realities...
...When the next regular session of the Assembly meets in September, there may well be a majority in the United Nations voting for at least debating the issue, if not fdr seating Peking...
...Such a humanitarian effort could be without any political strings...
...it is a recognition of the realities of the present situation...
...Peking may insist, for example, that the United States abandon its support of the Nationalist regime on Taiwan, so that the island may be "liberated" by Communist forces from the mainland...
...But may I suggest that those who find my suggestions unacceptable should formulate alternative proposals for dealing with the tangled skein of Sino-Western relations...
...In particular, China should be invited to join in disarmament negotiations and to adhere to any test ban treaty which may be drafted by the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union...
...Any approach to this problem has to start from the facts...
...it is primarily a matter for the Nationalist government on Taiwan...
...But it seems unlikely that this is what the people on Taiwan want...
...As for the legal aspects, it is important to remember that "the Republic of China" is a founder member of the organization, and a permanent member of the Security Council, with the right of veto...
Vol. 25 • March 1961 • No. 3
