Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a strongly worded statement Wednesday condemning Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (王毅) for misrepresenting United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 during a meeting with UN General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock in Beijing, calling his remarks a deliberate attempt to mislead the international community.
Wang met with Baerbock in Beijing on Tuesday. According to a readout published by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang praised Baerbock's mandate, expressed China's willingness to support her work as General Assembly president, and noted that this year marks the 55th anniversary of what Beijing describes as China's restoration of its "lawful seat" at the United Nations. Wang then stated that Resolution 2758 "has thoroughly resolved the issue of China's representation in the United Nations for the whole of China, including Taiwan," and that China opposes any challenge to the resolution's authority.
What Resolution 2758 Actually Says — and What It Doesn't
The full text of Resolution 2758, adopted in 1971, runs to approximately 150 words. It makes no mention of Taiwan and addresses solely the question of which government held China's UN seat, calling for the expulsion of "the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek" from the seat they "unlawfully occupy."
Baerbock's current visit follows a previous trip to Beijing in December 2024, when she was still serving as Germany's Foreign Minister. On that occasion, she issued a statement accusing Beijing of threatening peace in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. In 2023, she publicly referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as a "dictator." Germany's Foreign Ministry also made an unusually direct post on official social media stating that the Taiwan Strait carries enormous significance for the global economy and that Europeans would not accept any unilateral or forcible change to the status quo.
Taiwan's Foreign Ministry: Resolution 2758 Does Not Cover Taiwan
Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its statement that Resolution 2758 resolves only the question of which government represents China at the United Nations. The ministry said the resolution does not mention Taiwan, does not confirm that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China, and does not authorize the People's Republic of China to represent Taiwan within the UN system. The ministry added that the resolution cannot serve as grounds for excluding Taiwan from the United Nations or other multilateral mechanisms.
The ministry reaffirmed that only Taiwan's democratically elected government holds the right to represent Taiwan in the UN system and other international organizations. It further stated that the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which carries binding force under international law, supersedes political declarations such as the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, and that the treaty did not transfer Taiwan to the People's Republic of China. The ministry noted that the People's Republic of China has never governed Taiwan, and therefore Taiwan is not and has never been part of the People's Republic of China.
The ministry traced Taiwan's democratic development from the political liberalization that began in the mid-1980s through the first direct presidential election in 1996, after which the central executive and legislative branches of the Republic of China government have been chosen by Taiwan's voters. The ministry said this process established the Republic of China on Taiwan and the People's Republic of China as equal and mutually non-subordinate entities — a status it described as objective fact. Three subsequent peaceful transfers of power, in 2000, 2008, and 2016, have further consolidated Taiwan's democratic institutions and its people's commitment to freedom and self-determination.
Taiwan Calls on UN System to Stop Enabling China's Exclusion Campaign
The ministry called on the international community to take concrete steps to counter China's distortion of Resolution 2758, warning that Beijing is seeking to link the resolution to its own "One China Principle" in order to treat the Taiwan question as a purely domestic matter, alter the objective status quo in the Taiwan Strait, and construct a legal framework that could be used to justify future use of force against Taiwan.
The ministry also called on the UN system to uphold the principle of neutrality, to stop accommodating what it described as China's unreasonable suppression of Taiwan's legitimate participation rights, and to refrain from making statements on behalf of all UN member states without authorization. The ministry argued that Taiwan's inclusion is necessary for the UN's principle of universality and its goal of "leaving no one behind" to be genuinely realized, and that Taiwan, as a constructive member of the international community, is capable of contributing meaningfully to UN initiatives including the Sustainable Development Goals and international peace and security.
