Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume V, United Nations, 1969–1972

436. Telegram From the Mission to the United Nations to the Department of State¹

New York, October 30, 1971, 0050Z.

3956. Subj: Chirep in Specialized Agencies. Ref: USUN 3909.²

1. ROC Vice Minister Yang (please protect) expressed to Amb Phillips Oct 29 his strongly held personal view that with adoption of AR, ROC membership in all specialized agencies should be considered as terminated.

2. While recognizing right of each agency to be judge of its own membership qualifications, Yang thought it would be a serious mistake for ROC to fight to retain its membership in agencies. To do so, he said, would be to expose ROC to another round of bruising contests doomed to end in failure and thus contribute to a further erosion of ROC’s diplomatic position. Rather than fighting for a lost cause, Yang said ROC must now devote its energies to strengthening its bilateral relations with as many countries as possible.

3. Yang said FonMin Chow’s initial reaction following General Assembly vote had been a determination to fight to retain ROC’s seats in specialized agencies. Yang believes he has now convinced FonMin of fallacy of this policy and he hopes USG will refrain from giving ROC any encouragement to mount a campaign to retain its membership in specialized agencies. Yang observed that AR called for expulsion of “representatives of Chiang Kai-shek,” rather than ROC. He speculated what situation might be if in future a new govt came to power which explicitly claimed jurisdiction over only Taiwan. Under these different circumstances he said Taiwan might find greater receptivity to membership in some of specialized agencies, particularly those which act on principle of universality and which include in their membership states not members of United Nations.

Bush

1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 302, Agency Files, USUN, Vol. VIII. Secret; Noforn; Exdis. Repeated to Taipei.
2. In telegram 3909, October 28, ROC Foreign Minister Chow Shu-kai expressed his government’s intention to try to keep its seat in the specialized agencies. (Ibid.)