Australian Senators said UN Resolution 2758 does not establish the People’s Republic of China’s sovereignty over Taiwan and does not determine the future status of Taiwan in the UN.

Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Canberra has heaped praise on Australia after the Senate passed a bipartisan motion criticising China’s attempts to use a 50-year-old UN resolution to claim Taiwan as part of its territory.

China’s government has consistently tried to use UN Resolution 2758 — which recognises the People’s Republic of China as the “only legitimate representative of China to the UN” — to advance its claim that it has sovereignty over the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

It has also repeatedly claimed that Australia accepts that Taiwan is merely a province of China, an argument which Australia rejects.

Under the agreement signed by both countries when they established diplomatic ties Australia recognised the PRC as the sole government of China but only “acknowledged” China’s claim that Taiwan is part of its territory.