James Lin

Cracks began to emerge in this façade by the 1960s. A global wave of decolonization from the dismantling of European empires led to the emergence of newly independent nation-states in Africa and Asia. These new states carried votes in the United Nations (UN), the body that emerged in the postwar era as a de facto forum for the resolution of international disputes. Since the 1960s, the PRC — through its ally, Albania — lobbied the UN to replace the ROC with the PRC.

However, it was becoming increasingly difficult by the early 1970s for the KMT/ROC administration to maintain its self-image as China’s sole legitimate government. At the United Nations, a majority of member-states voted in 1971 to replace the ROC with the People’s Republic of China as the government representing China, with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. A number of countries began to sever diplomatic relations with the ROC and recognize the People’s Republic of China instead.