In Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Restoration of the Lawful Seat of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations

In Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Restoration of the Lawful Seat of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations

On October 25, 1971, the 26th Session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Resolution 2758 with an overwhelming majority, which decided to restore all rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations (UN), and recognized that the representatives of the People’s Republic of China are the only lawful representatives of China in the UN.

The return of the People’s Republic of China to the UN, whose population accounts for one fourth of the world’s total, has transformed the United Nations into an really global authoritative intergovernmental organization with the widest representation.

It also marks the beginning of a new era in the relations between China and the UN. As a founding member of the United Nations, China is the first country whose representative signed the UN Charter. However, since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the lawful seat of China had been deprived for 22 years, which was undoubtedly a shame and a scar for the international fairness and justice. A large number of friendly countries which love peace and defend justice stood up and spoke out boldly for China, calling for the restoration of China’s lawful seat in the UN. Tanzania has played an important role and made outstanding contributions to this endeavor.

President Julius Nyerere viewed China as a “brother”. He said in public that it is simply groundless and nonsense for individual countries to ask for voting against China in the UN. Under his leadership, Tanzania had been proposing adoption of a resolution to restore China’s lawful seat in the UN every year in the United Nations General Assembly since 1969.

It was also one of the 23 countries who submitted a draft resolution for restoring the lawful rights of the People’s Republic of China in the UN. The then Tanzanian Permanent Representative to the UN Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim participated in the whole process of this endeavor from consideration and drafting of the resolution to voting and adoption of it.

Moreover, he successfully foiled the U.S. representatives’ attempt to retain Taiwan’s seat in the UN. The scene of Dr. Salim taking the lead to clap and cheer when the resolution was adopted has become a classic moment in the history of China-Tanzania and China-Africa relations.

To recognize Dr. Salim’s outstanding contribution to the restoration of China’s lawful seat in the UN, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese President Xi Jinping conferred on him the Friendship Medal, China’s highest honor for foreign friends. Dr. Salim is the only African friend who has won such a honor to date. Over the past 50 years after restoration of its lawful seat in the UN, China has been practising true multilateralism.

It has abided by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and defended the UN-centered international system as well as the international order underpinned by international law. China has become a builder of world peace, a contributor of global development, a defender of the international order and a provider of public goods.


-- China has protected the international peace and security. The country is the second largest contributor to the budget of the UN peacekeeping operations, and the largest troop contributor among the permanent members of the Security Council. Since 1990, the Chinese military has participated in nearly 30 peacekeeping operations and dispatched over 50,000 peacekeepers.

China has taken a constructive part in the resolution of international and regional hotspot issues. It has defended justice with words and deeds, and promoted the building of a world with lasting peace and universal security.


-- China has brought impetus to the world’s common development. The country has contributed over 30% of the global economic growth for several years in a row. Since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy, China has uplifted 770 million rural population in the country from poverty, thus contributing to over 70% of global poverty reduction.

China attained the poverty reduction target under the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ten years ahead of schedule, thus setting a stellar example for the inter-national endeavor in poverty alleviation.

Delegates of many countries applaud when the 26th session of the United Nations General Assembly adopts Resolution 2758 to restore all lawful rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations, New York, U.S., October 25, 1971. Photo | XinhuaH.

-- China has provided plans for the reforms of the global governance sys-tem. Facing the major changes in the world unseen in a century, President Xi Jinping delivered several speeches at UN’s most prominent forums, in which he proposed the building of a community with shared future for mankind and the common values of humanity, responded to common concerns of the world, and pointed out the right direction for the world’s and human development.

At the General Debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, President Xi Jinping put forward the “Global Development Initiative”, which aims at bringing the global development into a new stage characterized by balanced, coordinated and inclusive development.


-- China has built the platforms for development cooperation among all countries. It has actively participated in international development cooperation under the UN framework. In 2015, President Xi Jinping announced the establishment of a China-UN Peace and Development Fund with the total amount of US$1 billion over a span of 10 years.

Last year, China declared that the Fund will be extended for 10 years when its original expiry comes in 2025. Up to now, more than 100 countries and regions have benefited from the Fund. China has signed over 200 Belt and Road cooperation documents with 141 countries and 32 international organizations as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) becomes a well-accepted international public good. China has implemented several thousand complete projects and programs of material assistance, over 10,000 projects of technological cooperation and human resources development, and provided more than 400,000 training opportunities, boosting the independent and sustainable development of developing nations.

Anita Kiki Gebe, deputy joint special representative of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, awards UN peace medal to a soldier of the 2nd China Medium Utility Helicopter Unit in El-Fashir, Sudan, July 17, 2019. Photo | Xinhua.

-- China has gathered strengths for tackling global challenges. The country has conducted international cooperation in the fight against the COVID-19 in an active manner. It proposed to enhance the role of the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO). China has been actively fulfilling President Xi Jin-ping’s promise of making Chinese vaccines a global public good, and will strive to provide 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of this year, promoting the building of a global immunization shield. China has taken the lead to respond to climate change. President Xi Jinping announced at the UN General Assembly that China would work hard to peak its carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, with a view to promote the construction of a fair, rational, cooperative and win-win global climate change governance system. At the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity held in Kunming, China, President Xi Jinping announced China’s initiative to establish the Kunming Biodiversity Fund and take the lead by investing 1.5 billion yuan (about 233 million U.S. dollars) to the fund, in order to support biodiversity protection in developing countries and build a homeland of harmonious coexistence between man and Nature.

China will not forget that it is the vast number of the developing countries that enabled her to restore the lawful seat in the UN. China pledges itself to work together with all progressive forces in the world, forever stand by the developing countries and uphold international justice with its vote in the United Nations.

China is willing to continue supporting each other with Tanzania and all other developing countries on issues relating to one another’s core interests and major concerns, and strengthen communication on important international and regional affairs so as to defend the true multilateralism together and pursue a more just and equitable international order.