By Michal Thim
There are good reasons to think that the UN Charter allows Japan and the US to come to Taiwan’s defense.
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Michal Thim responding to Julian Ku’s previous guest post on the Pacific Realist, which argued that Article 51 of the UN Charter on Collective Self-Defense would prohibit a third party from coming to Taiwan’s defense against China because Taiwan is not a UN member and countries like the U.S. abide by a “One China” policy. Ku did not argue that the U.S. or Japan should not come to Taiwan’s aid in the event of an attack, only that they couldn’t invoke Article 51 of the UN Charter in doing so.
Professor Julian Ku argues that helping Taiwan to defend itself is illegal. The core of his argument is that Taiwan is not an UN member, therefore– according to article 51 of UN Charter– it would be illegal for Japan or the U.S. to provide assistance to Taiwan should it find itself under attack by the People’s Republic of China.
Not so fast. Political scientists also have a few words to say on this matter. Taiwan is far from a clear cut case for us to apply a literal interpretation of the UN Charter.
First of all, it is not clear whether Professor Ku argues that non-members are international outlaws without any rights. Certainly a lack of UN membership does not mean that the respective non-member can be subject to armed attacks by other states as they please. Now, Taiwan is indeed not a UN member but it is not strictly speaking accurate to say that it is not a state. Here Taiwan’s status as the Republic of China recognized by some 21 states comes in play. While it is an argument that proponents of Taiwan’s independence would have a hard time swallowing, it gives Taiwan sense of international recognition.
From a de facto standpoint, it becomes even less ambiguous. Taiwan has territory, people (that even elects their government by democratic means, although that is not a requirement for sovereignty), government, armed forces, and it maintains relations with other states. Of course, Beijing’s position is that Taiwan is an integral part of China (i.e. the PRC) and therefore cross-Strait relations are not international relations. Yet, taking this position as a basis to asses Taiwan’s legality is extremely narrow and somewhat disingenuous if we consider the fact that Taiwan (or ROC) is not a UN member because Beijing opposes it.
Read the full story at The Diplomat