On August 29, China published its so-called “2023 standard map” showing all of Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin and other parts of Indian territories within its border. The map was released just days after Chinese President Xi Jinping had met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the BRICS summit in South Africa. India’s Ministry of External Affairs has lodged a strong protest over the Chinese territorial claims through diplomatic channels.

China’s map also lays claim to the entire South China Seas, which has no doubt drawn strong protests from the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. China’s Foreign Ministry said that it’s a routine practice in China’s exercise of sovereignty in accordance with the law and hoped that relevant sides could stay objective and calm and refrain themselves from over-interpreting the issue.

It would be easy for China to say so; however, China itself has never remained calm with respect to the territorial disputes with other countries. China not only includes the above disputed territories in its map, but also resorts to military tactics, escalating tensions at China-India borders and in the South China Sea. That’s what China means by remaining calm.

China also clams Taiwan as its territory, vowing to take control of Taiwan and refusing to renounce the use of force, despite never having ruled Taiwan. For decades, the people of Taiwan have remained calm in safeguarding the status quo of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

China’s frequent use of military and economic tactics to intimidate Taiwan and other neighbouring countries in recent years has posed a formidable threat and challenge to security across the Taiwan Strait, in Indo-Pacific region and the world. Ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is in everyone’s best interest. Half of the world’s commercial container traffic passes through the Taiwan Strait each day. Taiwan produces the majority of the world’s semiconductors and plays a key role in the global supply chains. Any conflict in the area would have disastrous consequences for the global economy.

The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) issued a joint communiqué from their summit in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 20, reaffirming the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as indispensable to security and prosperity in the international community.

UN, the best platform

While we can all agree that the war must be avoided, how to best do so requires inclusion, dialogue and, most of all, unity. The United Nations remains the best platform for global discourse.

However, Taiwan continues to be excluded from the UN due to China’s distortion of UN General Assembly Resolution 2758. This resolution neither states that Taiwan is a part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) nor gives the PRC the right to represent the people of Taiwan in the UN and its specialised agencies. In fact, the resolution only determines who represents the member-state China, a fact that the international community and China itself recognised following the relevant vote in 1971. The subsequent misrepresentation of Resolution 2758 contradicts the basic principles upheld by the UN Charter and must be rectified.

The UN should uphold its principle of leaving no one behind by allowing Taiwan to participate in the UN system, rather than excluding it from discussions on issues requiring global cooperation. A good first step would be to allow Taiwanese individuals and journalists to attend or cover relevant meetings, as well as ensure Taiwan’s meaningful participation in meetings and mechanisms.

The writer is Director-General, Taipei Economic and Cultural Center, Chennai

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