As part of a daylong conference sponsored by the University of Minnesota entitled, "China and the World Community", various panelists discuss China's role in the world from her own perspective as well as how other nations view China. Stanley Karnow, an associate editor of The New Republic magazine, gave a speech titled " China and the International Organizations."
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I want to talk about China briefly and its relation with International organizations particularly with the UN and other International organizations. As you know, which one it was excluded from the UN for a long. Of time and the Chinese attitude towards the UN innocence kind of sounded a bit like sour grapes since they won't they won't have us in the UN. We really don't care about the UN and there are even some moments when some there was a flurry of talk particularly with Indonesia of creating some new kind of international organization of emerging Nations. But in fact, when was Mel gurtov put it, I think very well. The rest of the world decided to get into step was China or I could be put another way when President Nixon and Henry Kissinger went through a kind of Shadow game it towards the end of 1971 and China was admitted to the UN without with if you recall that. Sort of a noisy American opposition to it, but I think really a secret desire does have the Chinese in and some Maneuvers in that direction. In that case. I won the Chinese word mitad. I think they were quite delighted to be admitted. I think it's fulfilled one of the great aspirations which was to be accepted to be acknowledged not only as a power, but it should be remembered to that. The question really was not whether China was going to be admitted to the UN China was already a member of the UN. It was a question of which government of China was going to be in the UN the nationalists had been in the UN since the beginning the members of the security Council. And the whole debate really was one of representation and not in a debate about admission. So in fact the peeking or peaking government, I replaced the Taiwan government if we put in those terms as the representative of China in the UN the picking government I was I think ratified are they finally this International recognition has been extent had been extended to it. and up Since then if I could just make a generalization about it, I think that the Chinese may have behaved a very responsibly in the you and I think the UN has serve them or they have used the UN in two different ways. On the one hand, it's important. I think that the the Chinese Communist regimes entry into the UN coincide coincide add more or less with a friend with in the UN itself in particular with a J within the general assembly in which one saw a gradual strengthening of third world countries and a greater Independence of the general assembly from American influence domination control or whatever word you like to use and if one goes back to the early 50s the UN was very much an instrument of the United States the only Means by which the Soviet Union could counter this influence was either by using its veto or by mr. Khrushchev slamming issue on the table, but gradually as more and more countries became independent and gained entry into the UN the general assembly particular became very much of a third-world body and I would like to just repeat what I said earlier. I think we ordered some will have the fine. Now what we mean about third world because there is a distinction and I think it's an important one between what we might call the oil-producing third war world and the starving third-world. I think these are two different third world and one might be there in the other one might be 4th. Or whatever what number you want to assign? at the same time that the Chinese have been very we're able to use the UN as a place to deal with a third world. Are they have also I think been using the UN and particularly their position the security Council ought to act as one of the world powers and here we see as I mentioned in my speech earlier here. We see again that the Chinese have been extremely cautious in that in that role of particularly in the Middle East War last full where they abstained. In the question of a of a revel of a resolution, which I think they would have preferred to propose if they were going to take the ProAir position. now the Chinese have been really I think getting a maximum amount of exposure in the you and using these two different ways. Both is a power added to place a meeting place with a third world. using it as a platform to speak to the world using it as a platform to speak to their own people from this world Podium you my excite as for other organizations They have been dealing with others other organizations in the UN. What one point is interesting I thinking and Professor Oxenberg touched on this when he talked about the lack of data coming out of the out of China are there has been a reluctance on the part of Chinese to get into organizations like the World Bank because that would require them to publish data economic data are there are lots of requirements for being a member of the World Bank and the Chinese have been reluctant to do so have refused to do so and I think it will be a long time before they get into these organizations. I would just throw out the lifeline just going to be very brief here. I would be inclined to say that the Chinese are more concerned with International organizations for political. and diplomatic reasons and they offered technological reasons. I think that as far as their dealings with other countries are on technology trade and so forth. I think they prefer to deal on a bilateral basis then on the multi multilateral a multinational basis. So just close this. I see I see the Chinese in the international organizations to use the Nazi tongues phrase walking on two legs dealing with the the variations in the world dealing with the developing countries in the one hand with a developed countries on the other and getting really maximum mileage out of their diplomacy.