Question: On 28 November, some backbenchers of the UK House of Commons concocted a non-legally binding Taiwan-related motion, distorting UNGA Resolution 2758. What is your comment?
Embassy Spokesperson: The relevant motion fabricated by a handful of British MPs deliberately distorts UNGA Resolution 2758, tramples on international law, and blatantly challenges the post-war international order and universally recognised norms of international relations. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns it.
Taiwan has been an inalienable part of China’s territory since ancient times. This is a basic fact recognised by the world. In 1971, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 with an overwhelming majority, deciding to restore all the rights of the People’s Republic of China at the UN, to recognise the representatives of the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the UN, and to expel forthwith the representatives of the Taiwan region from the UN and all the organisations related to it. Once and for all, the resolution resolved the issue of the representation of the whole of China, including Taiwan, in the UN. It made clear that there is no such thing as “two Chinas,” or “one China, one Taiwan.” As an inalienable part of China’s territory, Taiwan does not have any ground, reason, or right to join the UN, or any other international organisation whose membership is confined to sovereign states. On this matter of principle, there is no gray zone or room for ambiguity.
In the 1972 joint communiqué between China and the UK on the exchange of Ambassadors, the UK government clearly recognised the Chinese government’s position that Taiwan is a province of China, and decided to revoke its official representative office in Taiwan with immediate effect, and recognised the government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China.
The motion cooked up by a handful of anti-China MPs cannot alter the basic fact and the international consensus that Taiwan is part of China, and cannot stop the overriding trend of history that China must and will realise reunification. What these MPs are trying to do is to make trouble and seek attention for themselves. The motion they concocted is nonsense.
We urge the relevant politicians to stop their clumsy political farce and stop challenging the one-China principle, which is a basic norm of international relations. The UK government must abide by the clear commitment the British side made in the 1972 joint communiqué and put an end to the provocative actions of anti-China politicians.
