How did China get a spot on the UN Security Council? (1 Viewer)

[Daniel Swartz]

This isn't a political thread ... just a historical one. I'm curious as to how China gained a position on the UN Security Council when the UN was first founded? They certainly weren't the economic or military power that they are today. And their power was eclipsed in many ways by a rising Japan. So why China instead of Japan? If it were population-related, why not India instead of China?

 

[Josh Lowe]

I believe China has a permanent spot on the UNSC because they are a nuclear power. I believe all nations with nuclear weapons were granted permanent seats when the council was formed, and then other countries rotate in and out of the other seats.

 

[BrianB]

Josh is right.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Josh is right.

Actually, he isn't.
1) When the U.N. was founded only one nation, or two at most, has nuclear weapons. (The U.S., certainly. I'm not sure exactly when the Soviet Union exploded its first device, but I think it was after the San Francisco Conference that founded the U.N. Britain, France and the PRC all developed independent nuclear forces later, the PRC last of all.) Having nuclear weapons did nothing to get the PRC the "China seat", though. They would have to wait decades until the diplomatic climate changed for that to happen.
2) The five permanent seats on the Security Council went to the five major opponents of the Axis Powers in WWII: the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, and China (Taiwan). China was certainly a country with great potential (although then in the middle of a civil war), had been among the first countries invaded by the Japanese (years before the formal start of WWII) and had suffered greatly during the war. It also served as a base for U.S. and British operations against the Japanese throughout Asia and in the Indian sub-continent. In terms of population it certainly far exceeded India, and in economic potential it exceeded Japan, which was not then the industrial nation we know today. Also Japan was an agressor nation during the war that created the U.N., so there was no way that Japan was going to be given a permanent seat on the Council in any case.
Regards,
Joe

 

[BrianB]

I bow to your superior knowledge, Joseph

 

[Brian Kleinke]

Bingo Joseph and well said.
The UN is an interesting orginization and you do have to look at when it was founded to make sense of it all.
Now it seems odd, but such is world politics

 

[Jack Briggs]

The Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear device in 1949. And mainland China did not become a nuclear power until the mid-1960s.

 

[Josh Lowe]

my mistake. i had thought the UNSC was formed a while after the UN itself was established as a response to the escalating cold war. i didn't believe that china was a charter member of the security council, either.

 

[Daniel Swartz]

Interesting. Thanks guys.

 

[Grant B]

Post Edited By Administrator - Please, No Politics!
I do remember that Albania was the country who sponsored (maybe nominated is a better word) China for the UN. I was the only kid in the 5th grade who knew that. Our teacher gave everyone hell (except me) for not knowing that

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

The Security Council was in part established to correct the perceived shortcomings of the old League of Nations. The LON only had an assembly and had no powers of enforcement. When Japan took Manchuria, the LON passed a resolution comdemning it. So (and I have this on several videos) the Japanese delegation merely picked up their briefcases and walked out, never to return (27 March 1933). Something similar happened with Italy when they invaded Abyssinia.

The UN was created during the last year of WWII. Fifty nations' representatives met in the opera house in San Francisco from 25 April to 25 June 1945 to hammer out the design of the new UN organization. The UN Charter took effect on 24 October 1945. The victorious major military powers (US, UK, USSR, China) knew that any future "enforcement" was going to involve them so they took the permanent seats on the Security Council. France was also given a permanent seat although arguably France was no longer a major military power. Note that in 1945 "China" meant the Nationalist Government which wasn't overthrown by the Maoist Communists until 1949. The Nationalist Government on Taiwan retained the "China" Security Council seat until relatively recently IIRC.