IO files, SD/A/309
Position Paper Prepared in the Department of State for the United States Delegation to the Eighth Regular Session of the General Assembly
Question of Chinese Representation
the problem
The Soviet Representative served notice at the recent meetings of the Seventh Session on Korea that the USSR intends to press strongly at the Eighth Assembly Session for the seating of the Chinese Communists. It is probable that this issue will also be raised by such delegations as India which actively support the seating of the Chinese Communists. The issue is likely to be raised as follows: (a) as at the Fifth General Assembly, at the outset of the opening plenary meeting, in the form of a proposal or proposals to exclude the Representatives of the Government of the Republic of China and invite Chinese Communist Representatives; (b) as at the Sixth General Assembly, in the form of a request for the inclusion of the question of the representation of China in the Assembly’s agenda; or (c) as at the Seventh General Assembly, initially in the Credentials Committee, in the form of a proposal calling upon the General Assembly to declare invalid the credentials of the Representatives of the Government of the Republic of China.
united states position
1. If the question arises as indicated in (a) above, the United States should initiate or support in the plenary a motion along the following lines:
I move “That the General Assembly postpone for the duration of its Eighth Regular Session consideration of all proposals to exclude the Representatives of the Government of the Republic of China and to seat representatives of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China”.
The United States should take the necessary steps to ensure that this procedural motion is put to the vote before the substantive proposal and, upon its adoption, that the substantive proposal is not put to the vote.
2. If the question arises as indicated in (b) above, the United States should initiate or support in the General Committee a resolution along the following lines:
“The General Committee,
- “1. Recommends that the General Assembly decide to reject the request of the [Soviet Union]1 for the inclusion in the agenda of its [Page 692] Eighth Session of the additional item entitled ‘(precise title of item)’; and
- “2. Recommends that the General Assembly decide to postpone consideration for the duration of its Eighth Regular Session of any further proposals to exclude Representatives of the Government of the Republic of China from the Assembly or to seat representatives of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China to represent China in the Assembly”.
3. If the question arises as indicated in (c) above, the United States should seek to have the Credentials Committee adopt a proposal along the following lines:
“The Credentials Committee,
- “1. Recommends that the General Assembly postpone for the duration of its Eighth Regular Session consideration of all proposals to exclude the Representatives of the Government of the Republic of China and to seat representatives of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China; and
- “2. Finds that the credentials of the Representatives of the Government of the Republic of China conform with the provisions of rule 27 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly”.
The necessary steps should be taken to ensure that this proposal is put to the vote before the [Soviet bloc proposal]2 and, upon its adoption, that the [Soviet bloc proposal] is not put to the vote.
4. In the unlikely event that procedural action along lines outlined in recommendations 1, 2, and 3 above, is not taken and the substance of the Chinese representation question is put to the vote, the United States should actively oppose and vote against any proposal to exclude the Chinese National representatives and/or seat Chinese Communists.
comment
By taking a procedural position which avoids a vote on the substance we can achieve our basic objective (the seating of the Representatives of the Chinese National Government and the exclusion of the Chinese Communists) with minimum difficulty and with maximum free-world support.
In June 1951 the United Kingdom agreed to a “moratorium arrangement” under which United Kingdom and United States Representatives jointly support in all United Nations and specialized agency bodies procedural action (usually postponement) which avoids votes on the substance but results in the seating of Representatives of the Chinese National Government and the exclusion of Chinese Communists. This arrangement has been supported by a large majority of states including, in addition to the United Kingdom, most of our key allies which recognize the Chinese Communists. The support of the [Page 693] United Kingdom and other recognizing states (which follow the United Kingdom lead on Chinese representation) for the “moratorium arrangement” was based originally on the continuance of hostilities in Korea. The Chinese representation issue was raised by the Secretary in the tripartite meetings last June. The agreed communique stated that the Foreign Ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom and France “considered that, in existing circumstances and pending further consultation, the common policies of the three Powers toward Communist China should be maintained.” Subsequently, UK officials have emphasized the need to handle the Chinese representation issue in the UN by way of extension of the “moratorium arrangement” (period unspecified but for the duration of the eighth GA) so as to make it unnecessary for the British representatives to vote directly on the issue of seating the Chinese Communists. Under this procedure, we would jointly seek to prevent the seating of the Chinese Communists through adoption of procedural action. While, for the present, we could undoubtedly continue to command the necessary majority to achieve our objective in the General Assembly and plenipotentiary bodies of the specialized agencies without the continued affirmative support, under the “moratorium arrangement”, of the United Kingdom and states which follow its lead, it is essential that this working arrangement be maintained if we are to continue to achieve our basic objective in certain other smaller United Nations and specialized agency bodies which are so composed that a majority or near majority of their members recognize the Chinese Communists. Moreover, it should be noted that last June,3 in view of the imminence of a Korean armistice, we instructed our ambassadors to express to other friendly UN Member Governments our continued vigorous opposition to the seating of the Chinese Communists, and to indicate that in the interest of avoiding open differences among the free-world states in the UN we would be willing to continue the present practice of avoiding votes on the substance through procedural action by which consideration of any proposal to change Chinese representation would be postponed indefinitely. The results of these representations show that we can continue to command the broadest support for our position through procedural action.