I WATCHED the YouTube video of the UN vote on Resolution No. 2758 of October 25, 1971 when the People’s Republic of China (PROC) was accepted into the United Nations by a vote of 76 for, 35 against and 17 abstentions.
It would be good for readers to watch the drama of that day too, here’s a link that explains the whole episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX2NdbbX8Cs&t=25s
There were two stages to the UN decision accepting China and replacing the US client island Taiwan in the UN. The first was a vote on a US proposal to require 2/3 majority of the UN General Assembly to remove the Taiwan government.
That proposal was rejected by the body, and then the proposal to accept the PROC was resolved favorably and to a 2-minute thunderous applause by the body and some African delegates even staged a victory dance.
That UN decision truly changed the world and explains why the world is as it is today, with the UN being slowly but surely guided away from the diktats of the Western powers and to represent more authentically the sentiment and wisdom of the majority of the 193 members of the UN.
The victory was a product of decades of China’s demonstration of its commitment to world peace and justice, wielding its seat at the Security Council in favor of the oppressed nations of the Third World.
Africa also knows what it was celebrating that day. They were celebrating what would be their future in partnership with the new leadership among the top powers in the World, China.
For me, one of the symbols of China’s long-term commitment to economic and political liberation of the developing world is the 1,865-kilometer Tazara Railway (Tanzania-Zambia Railway) built since 1976 to link landlocked Zambia to the sea and allow its exports to the world.
Zambia, previous to the Tazara Railway, had its access blocked on one side by White supremacist South Africa and South Rhodesia.
China stepped in to help build the railway to link it to the Indian Ocean; I mention this as I read about it in President Xi Jinping’s speech to the UNGA commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the PROC’s admission to the UN and I wonder what it was all about.
Now I understand, it is the symbol of the long-term commitment of China to develop the world for global prosperity and peace.
It has been quite a yeoman’s task for me and my colleagues who have been trying to build up the image of Philippine-China cooperation and goodwill over the past decades against the onslaught of US-funded media black propaganda against China and President Duterte’s initiatives, and it is rare information like the Tazara Railway that demonstrates one of the cardinal motivations of China’s international relations:
Genuine international economic-social development and progress.
President Xi, in his speech said, “from the Tazara Railway to the BRI,” the latter the latest evolution of that global development into a multi-trillion dollars infrastructure-power-digital infrastructure plan linking the Third World to markets to enrich previously poor nations and be free from perpetual poverty imposed by Western neo-colonial economic policies.
US President Biden announced a rival to the BRI, the “Build, Back, Better” but it is nowhere to be seen to this day.
China has been doing this Good Samaritan endeavor for the world as it is also the foundation for its own “China Dream” to become a prosperous “modern socialist power” by 2050.
China has learned the lesson from the West’s exploitative plutocratic systems that limits global growth until it destroys the exploiter countries themselves, as what we are witnessing today in the US financial crisis.
China sees its own growth in the context of the continuous growth of the rest of the world.
China now is undoubtedly a leader among the leaders in the UN and its family of 50 organizations, such as the WHO where China lifted its hope with a $2-billion donation in May of 2020 when the US, in a fit of pique, withdrew its financial support.
Through or outside the UN-WHO Covax facility, China up to now has also been the biggest contributor of COVID-19 vaccines to the world– up to 2 billion doses plus $100-million to Covax.
China is contributing its fair share of the burden of running the international organization, providing 15 percent of the UN’s budgetary requirements today and second only to the US, and filling the biggest number of UN peacekeepers among the 5 Security Council members.
We can all heave a sigh of relief that China was finally accepted into the UN 50 years ago hence giving us the hope that the UN will continue to be an institution in the service of Mankind.
(Samahan si Ka Mentong Laurel at mga panauhin sa “Power Thinks” tuwing Miyerkules @6pm Live Global Talk News Radio (GTNR) sa Facebook at sa Talk News TV sa You Tube; at tuwing Linggo 8 to 10am sa RP1 738khz AM sa radyo.)