In 1961, the 16th UN General Assembly decided to put China's representation on its agenda, which was a breakthrough in overcoming the obstacles placed by the United States in the way of restoring the lawful rights of New China in the United Nations. To continue to prevent China from regaining its lawful rights in the United Nations, the United States employed procedural maneuvers and got the General Assembly to adopt a resolution according to which China's representation was an "important question" that could only be decided with a two third majority votes of the General Assembly.
While throughout the 1960s the UN General Assembly passed the "important question" resolutions under the pressure of the United States, the number of countries that voted in favor of restoring China's seat in the United Nations kept rising. In 1970, the number of votes for restoring China's lawful rights in the United Nations for the first time exceeded votes of opposition.
In July, 1971, the United States continued to attempt to block the settlement of China's representation in the United Nations. In addition to putting forward a resolution on the "important question" with the Sato Eisaku government of Japan to the 26th UN General Assembly, it cooked up a resolution on "dual representation", namely, accepting the representative of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations but retaining the representation of "the Republic of China" in it. In response to this open attempt to create "two Chinas" in the United Nations by the United States, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a solemn statement on August 29. It was pointed out in the statement that to restore the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations and expel the Chiang Kai-shek clique from the United Nations were two inseparable aspects of the same question and that China would never allow the creation of "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan" in the United Nations.
On October 25, the 26th UN General Assembly rejected the "important question" resolution with 59 votes against, 55 votes for and 15 abstentions. It proceeded to pass with an overwhelming majority of votes(76 votes for, 35 votes against and 17 abstentions) a resolution sponsored by Albania, Algeria and other 21 countries, which decided to restore all the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations and immediately expel the representatives of the Kuomintang clique from the United Nations and all its affiliated agencies. This is the famous UN General Assembly Resolution No. 2758, which brought about a thorough and fair settlement of China's representation in the United Nations politically, legally and procedurally.
The restoration of China's lawful rights by the 26th UN General Assembly represented a major victory won on this issue through protracted struggle by China and many justice upholding third world countries and other countries. It was a major breakthrough in China's diplomacy and marked the complete failure of the anti-China forces in their attempt to block the restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations.
Editor: Zhang Pengfei | Source: mfa.gov.cn