Taiwan: Dreaming For a Seat in the U.N.

For years, Taiwan has dreamt of being an independent state, but the People’s Republic of China would not allow this dream to become a reality. Thus, Taiwan has taken a different route for independence through applying for membership in the U.N., which can be seen in the image to the left. Unfortunately, the U.N. rejected Taiwan’s request for membership just last week. This was a disappointment for Taiwan because it was the 15th consecutive time that they have been rejected. Thus, I explored the blogsphere to seek out what many has to say about this matter. Within Blogger, I found a very interesting post from Taiwanese professor, Dr. T, from Soochow University. In his post, “Through the UN rejects Taiwan’s UN bid, we will never give up!” he seems very certain that Taiwan would find their way to the U.N. Therefore, I made comment on his blog to point out that Taiwan may be facing a few obstacles before it can rightfully take a seat in the U.N. Along with that, I found another blog post that caught my interest at Blog@Case. The blog post, “Taiwan-Why we continue to ignore it?” belonged to an alumnus of Case Western Reserve University. In his post, he was upset that the U.N. had rejected Taiwan’s bid, and he claimed that Taiwan is being overlooked because of China’s economic influence over the global community. Hence, I wanted to refute his claim that China may not be such a powerful influence over the global community.

Though the UN rejects Taiwan's UN bid, we will never give up!

My comment:

Through reading your post, I predict that it is going to be a difficult task for Taiwan to gain U.N. membership. We must take into consideration the U.N. resolution 2758 enacted in 1971, which recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the main U.N. representative of all China. The U.N. cannot ignore or suddenly change its resolution because of one country. If the U.N. did decide to give Taiwan a seat, it would undermine the U.N.’s governing power and cause uproar in China. As many may know, the U.N. does not have absolute power over the international community, thus it cannot retract its resolution without upsetting China. China, as many may know, has gained a lot of power over the years. They hold and produce most of the world’s goods. It is possible that China may either stop its export of these goods or it may launch a full missile attack on Taiwan if the U.N. agrees to Taiwan’s bid. Though I believe it is unjustly that Taiwan cannot participate in the U.N., we must look at the larger picture. This matter goes beyond the fact that Taiwan cannot get a seat in the U.N.; it concerns the order of the global community and the prevention of nuclear warfare between China and Taiwan. I supposed that Taiwan can continue their attempts, but I hope they consider the possible repercussions to their actions.

Taiwan - Why do we continue to ignore it?

My comment:

I do agree that Taiwan has demonstrated or represented itself as a sovereign state for years. By examining the eight criteria that makes a state independent, I have noticed that Taiwan fits most of these criteria. However, I thought there was one essential criterion that was missing from the list, political power. It is essential for a sovereign state to have the power to create and mandate laws onto its citizens if it wants to be considered as a sovereign state. Aside from that matter, I see that Taiwan has a few supporters as Taiwan tried to gain membership in the U.N. However, I noticed that these supporters do not have a strong presence in the global community. Not trying to be biased, I think the only way Taiwan can have the upper in hand in the U.N. situation is by forming allies with great powers such as Japan, Britain, and the U.S. These great powers have their own way of persuading the U.N. and possibly China. Even though China has an advantage over the U.S. because of trade, the U.S. will not sit back and allow China to dictate Taiwan -U.S. relations.

On the matter of China taking a military stance on Taiwan, it is unlikely that China would use military force. China knows that the global community will not allow such behavior. The U.N. would immediately place a sanction on China and mandate a cessation of trade with other nations. This would economically hurt China and they would not want to take that risk. After a while, China may just loosen its grasp on Taiwan and allow Taiwan to hold a seat the U.N. because China did allow Taiwan to hold presidential elections even if it went against China’s socialist system.

China's One Child Policy: A Policy Gone Ethically and Socially Wrong?

For years, the People’s Republic of China has been on the radar as the most populous country in the world. Its population has soared dramatically over a few years. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s International Data Base, China has reached up to 1.3 billion people. The country has made many attempts to control its growing population and hopefully to stabilize it. One of China’s attempts was the one child policy . This policy decreed that every couple living in urban areas are only allowed to have one child. Those living in the rural areas or minority groups are allowed to have a second child after a five-year break. Since the installment of the one child policy, China has seen the policy’s effectiveness. As the People’s Daily Online, a Communist Party newspaper, reports “… [the policy] has been credited with preventing more than 400 millions births since it was introduced in the late 1970s…” Though the one child policy may seem effective in population control, there have been many social, ethical, and international problems that have risen from this policy.

In a Los Angeles Times article, Luo Cuifen, a 29-years-old Chinese woman, discovered that 23 needles were flowing around in her body (as seen in the image below). It was a surprise to many Chinese surgeons that she has survived until this age. Qu Rui, a spokesman for the Richland International Hospital, asserted that Cuifen was a victim of female infanticide. Also, the surgeons assumed, “the woman’s grandparents may have inserted the needles long ago, hoping she would die and her parents might have a boy in her place.” This discovery has left Cuifen psychological scarred. Cuifen knew her worth every since she was born as she stated, “I knew my grandfather looked down on me because I was a girl, but I had no idea he hated me that much until I found out about the needles.”

After reading the article, I found that it was obvious that the one child policy has become an ethical and social problem in China. Traditionally, many Chinese families prefer to have sons rather than daughters because sons tend to support and stay with the family, whereas daughters leave their family to live with the in-laws. With the installment of the one child policy, couples must resort to female infanticide in order to continue reproducing to get a son. These female infants are either killed right after birth or a forced abortion is done beforehand. This is an unethical crime that these couples commit in order to avoid the raft of the government. As a result, there is now a gender imbalance in China. The number of girls that are killed each year is the reason for this. According to the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China, the male population outnumbers females by 37 million. This is a tremendous gender imbalance, and it has resulted in many unwed and sexually frustrated men.

With such a demand for brides, China is facing a social and international problem of human trafficking or best known as bride trafficking. According to China Daily, young girls from rural areas of China are being kidnapped and sold to Chinese bachelors. These young girls are being separated from their families and are often never seen again. Moreover, bride trafficking is not only occurring within China, but beyond China’s borders. There have been reports of bride trafficking from North Korea, Vietnam, and other Asian countries surrounding China. Similar to the bride trafficking within China, girls are being kidnapped and sold into prostitution or marriage. This is an international matter concerning human rights. The rights of these young girls in China and other Asian countries are being taken away from them as sacrifices to China’s one child policy. Many young girls are being stranded and distanced from their loved ones in a moment’s notice.

As these social problems become more apparent, China has not taken any extreme measures to resolve these issues. China does realize that they are facing a gender imbalance and human trafficking issue, but they have not implemented an effective strategy to resolve it. For instance, China had implemented a “care for girls” policy in 2000 that provided incentives for families with female infants. However, the policy only insures girl-only families in rural areas. This creates a problem because most rural families are farmers, and they need or prefer sons to help them with the heavy works. When theses girls are married off, they leave their family; thus, leaving the family to defend for themselves. On the matter of bride trafficking, China has discussed the matter, but no policies have been implemented. By and large, it is understandable that China is trying to control its growing population, but the current policy has its flaws.