Taiwan in bid for UN membership after success for Palestine

Taiwan has urged Penny Wong to throw Australia’s support behind the self-governed territory’s bid for UN membership after the Albanese government backed Palestine’s admission to the global body.

Taiwan’s representative in Australia, Douglas Yu-tien Hsu. Picture: Tertius Pickard

Taiwan has urged Penny Wong to throw Australia’s support behind the self-governed territory’s bid for UN membership after the Albanese government backed Palestine’s admission to the global body.

Taiwan’s top diplomat in Australia, Douglas Hsu, said Palestine’s recently upgraded UN status underscored the injustice of Taiwan’s exclusion from the organisation at China’s behest.

“We found it very interesting and we found it very unreasonable, because Taiwan is a leading democracy,” he told The Australian.

“Taiwan is an important economy in the world. We play a very important role in global supply chains. However, we are not even granted the status of being included in the United Nations.”

As the Foreign Minister departed for New York to attend the UN General Assembly’s annual high-level session, Mr Hsu said: “We are asking like-minded countries to address this issue.”

His comments came as Joe Biden, in a hot mic incident at the Quad leaders’ summit in the US, said China was “aggressively” testing America and its allies across the region.

“It’s true in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, South China, South Asia and the Taiwan Straits,” Mr Biden told Anthony Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as he opened the Quad meeting in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware.

Taiwan’s request follows the Senate’s repudiation last month of Beijing’s interpretation of a 1971 UN resolution recognising the People’s Republic of China as “the only legitimate representative of China to the UN”.

It passed a bipartisan motion declaring UN Resolution 2758 “does not establish the People’s Republic of China’s sovereignty over Taiwan and does not determine the future status of Taiwan in the UN, nor Taiwanese participation in UN agencies or international organisations”.

Asserting Taiwan’s right to participate in the UN would infuriate China, which warns the territory is “playing with fire” in its latest bid for “illegal inclusion” in the organisation.

It would also be a largely symbolic move, as Beijing enjoys strong support among developing nations for Taiwan’s exclusion and could use its Security Council veto to overrule any attempt to grant the territory UN membership.

But opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said Senator Wong should go in to bat for Taiwan as a matter of principle in her speech to the UN General Assembly this week.

“Australian governments have consistently said that we should support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organisations as a member where statehood is not a prerequisite, and as an observer or guest where statehood is a prerequisite for membership,” Senator Birmingham said.

“Penny Wong should be willing to repeat and advocate for Australia’s longstanding position, including during her engagements at the UN.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong during Senate question time last week. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Foreign Minister, who will address the UN Security Council on Thursday AEST and the General Assembly on Saturday AEST, said she would use the session to argue for the restoration of “broken” global rules.

“Reform of the UN system is needed, and Australia is committed to being a constructive and engaged partner in this process, advocating for our region and responding to the needs of developing countries,” Senator Wong said ahead of her departure. She will call for an end to the war in Gaza, and press Australia’s demands for improvements in the way Israel co-ordinates with aid agencies following the World Central Kitchen drone strike in April that killed Australian Zomi Frankcom and six colleagues.

Senator Wong’s office declined to say whether she would raise Taiwan’s renewed bid for UN membership when she took the stage at UN headquarters.

However, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said Australia supported the island territory’s right to play a role in international affairs.

“Taiwan is a leading Indo-Pacific democracy and an important partner for Australia. Australia and Taiwan share an interest in a rules-based, open, inclusive and stable Indo-Pacific region,” she said.

“Australia’s longstanding position is to support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organisations. For global challenges, such as health emergencies, climate change and civil aviation safety, Taiwan has a valuable contribution to offer.”

Health Minister Mark Butler joined the US in May to reiterate calls for Taiwan to participate in the World Health Organisation, while both nations have supported the territory’s unsuccessful bid to join the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Mr Hsu said Taiwan – Australia’s ninth-biggest trading partner – remained hopeful the partners could one day sign a bilateral free trade deal, and urged Australia to use its 2025 chairmanship of the trans-Pacific partnership free trade bloc ­to support Taiwan’s inclusion in the key multilateral agreement, which China also wants to join.

However, the government is set to treat Taiwan’s requests with caution given its efforts to stabilise ties with China.

Australia broke with the US in May to support “the state of Palestine” to become a de facto UN member in a vote that handed it extra rights and privileges as a UN observer.

The Palestinian Authority used its upgraded UN status last week, winning majority support for its first General Assembly motion demanding an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank, and imposing sanctions against the Jewish state.

Taiwan, by contrast, is excluded from all UN bodies and its citizens are denied entry to UN premises.

The self-governed territory of more than 23 million people launched an appeal to the international community this month seeking support to overturn China’s “twisted” interpretation of UN Resolution 2758, which Beijing relies on to assert its “One China Principle”.

Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tien Chung-kwang, said it was ironic that the theme for this year’s UN General Assembly session was “Leave no one behind”.

“China falsely claims that Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China and has authorised the PRC to represent it,” he said.

“Such a claim negates the fact that the Republic of China (Taiwan) is a sovereign nation and has legitimate rights to be part of the UN.”

The Chinese embassy in Canberra declined to comment. But the state-run Global Times warned Taiwan was seeking to “play with fire and go against the trend of history”.