Taiwan's Foreign Policy in the 1970s: a Case Study of Adaptation and Viability

A SERIES OF diplomatic-political setbacks in the early 1970s suggested that Taiwan-i.e., the Republic of China (ROC)would progressively suffer political isolation. The political isolation would lead to economic and cultural isolation, and the viability and independent status of Taiwan would draw to a close. A nadir of sorts occurred when the ROC walked out of the U.N. General Assembly on October 25, 1971. A motion to declare the expulsion of Taiwan an "important question," requiring a two-thirds vote, failed by a four-vote margin (55 to 59, 15 abstentions). Taiwan's position was not helped by the fact that Henry Kissinger, then Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, was on his second visit to Peking at the time the General Assembly debated the China question. Immediately after the vote, the ROC Foreign Minister, Chou Shu-kai, announced that his government "would not take part in any further proceedings of the General Assembly." Since the admission of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the United Nations, there have been efforts to relegate the ROC to the status of a non-country. It is no longer included in any U.N. statistical reports. The most visible reminder of the ROC's earlier membership, a marble plaque carrying a quotation from Confucius that was a gift of the ROC, was quietly removed in August 1972. A New York Times editorial pointedly assessed the practical absurdity of such actions: