Canada Should Support Taiwan’s Participation in the UN

Commentary

As the 80th U.N. General Assembly begins this week in New York, and the 42nd session of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Assembly will take place in late September in Montreal, we hope Canada’s new government as well as like-minded partners will support Taiwan’s meaningful participation within the United Nations system.

At a time when the world is presented with shared challenges, Canada has stepped up to advance the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through innovative public-private partnerships, Canada is leading methane reduction efforts in Belize, Grenada, Guyana, and St. Lucia, and also playing a key role in shaping climate change adaptation projects in Tuvalu.

As Canada continues to pivot towards the Indo-Pacific, there is enormous potential for deeper collaboration between us. Taiwan, too, has been turning the SDGs into concrete results, especially in health care. Integrating mobile devices and cloud platforms, our experts are helping St. Lucia with enhancing community screening and reducing backlogs. Leveraging AI to take detailed medical images, our volunteers are on the ground in Belize and Eswatini, helping doctors with diagnosing a wide array of eye diseases. Deploying tools capable of providing effective monitoring of chronic diseases, our doctors are helping Fiji’s doctors to strengthen geriatric care. Canada and Taiwan can act together and be a force multiplier for change and progress.

Regrettably, despite Taiwan’s significant global contributions, it remains largely unrecognized by the international community and is unable to participate in the U.N. system. Taiwan’s unwarranted exclusion stems from China’s deliberate misrepresentation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758. The resolution is falsely linked with the so-called “one China principle” and continues to be wrongfully weaponized to block Taiwan’s participation. Actually “the Resolution”  does not mention Taiwan at all—it merely addresses China’s representation in the United Nations. The resolution does not state that Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), nor does it grant the PRC the right to represent Taiwan in the U.N. system. Nevertheless, the United Nations has yielded to China’s political pressure, using the resolution as a pretext to exclude Taiwan from the international community.

In response, Taiwan is speaking out against this injustice and garnering ever more support. As international backing for Taiwan grows, countries worldwide including Canada are increasingly emphasizing the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait at bilateral and multilateral forums such as the Group of Seven summit. And the executive and legislative branches of numerous nations have publicly clarified that UNGA Resolution 2758 neither determines Taiwan’s status nor precludes its participation in the international organizations, including the U.N. system.

In a world of rapid transformations, choice and diversification are essential. Canada is already moving decisively with Taiwan over investment protection, scientific cooperation, indigenous empowerment and public health management under its Indo-Pacific Strategy. And given recent shifts in global commerce, there exists potential for more strategic coupling. The provision of cutting-edge semiconductors from Taiwan are critical for Canada’s automotive sector, and Canadian rare earths have the potential to power the next chapter of Taiwanese chip manufacturing, AI training, and clean technology research and development. Within this context, supporting Taiwan’s inclusion within the wider U.N. infrastructure would greatly bolster Canadian objectives for a free and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

As an arterial path for transcontinental flights from North America to Asia, the Taiwan Strait must be free from coercion. We hope Canada will continue to back Taiwan’s bid to participate in the ICAO as a guest of the chair so that Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration will be able to share the most updated information within the ICAO data system so as to ensure safer and more sustainable skies.

Taiwan’s meaningful participation within the United Nations system will only fulfill the U.N.’s SDG goals and help us ensure a stable and secure world.

Li-hsin Angel Liu is the director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.