{"id":407369,"date":"2021-10-28T08:28:12","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T08:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/?p=407369"},"modified":"2021-10-28T08:28:12","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T08:28:12","slug":"notes-in-history-on-somalias-support-for-chinas-restoration-of-their-seat-at-the-united-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/notes-in-history-on-somalias-support-for-chinas-restoration-of-their-seat-at-the-united-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes in History on Somalia\u2019s Support for China\u2019s Restoration of their Seat at the United Nations"},"content":{"rendered":"

On t<\/span>he 25<\/span>th<\/span> of October<\/span> 1971, a proposal was submitted to the 26<\/span>th<\/span>United Nations General Assembly by 23 member states. This proposal called for the restoration of the lawful rights of the People\u2019s Republic of China <\/span>at the UN and<\/span> allowing it proper representation at this world body. It was on this historic day that UNGA resolution No. 2758 was passed,<\/span> and for the first time in UN history, developing nations had their voices heard<\/span> and their collective strength demonstrated<\/span>. <\/span>This week, as we celebrate the 50<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary of this event, we are reminded of the significance of strength in unity.<\/span><\/p>\n

This remarkable achievement was largely obtained by the active advocacy and campaigning spearheaded by <\/span>several<\/span> African Nations.<\/span> As Chairman Mao Zedong used to say, \u201c<\/span>It was our African brothers, the small and medium-sized countries that carried us into the United Nations\u201d. <\/span>The solidarity they had shown towards China was very much fueled by their shared historic experience fighting against foreign domination, colonization, and imperialism.<\/span><\/p>\n

China joined the United Nations as a founding member on <\/span>the 24<\/span>th<\/span> of October 1945 and<\/span> became a permanent member of the UN security council. Prior to that, China was one of four nations that drafted the United Nations Charter in 1944 and was accorded the honor of being the first to sign the UN Charter in recognition of its long-standing fight against aggression.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However<\/span>,<\/span> after the 1949 revolution, the People\u2019s Republic of China was prevented from reclaiming its lawful seat at the UN. Over the following two decades, <\/span>efforts <\/span>spent by the People\u2019s Republic to restore its due representation at the world body<\/span> were swiftly blocked<\/span>.<\/span> That is <\/span>until resolution 2758 <\/span>was passed thanks to the PRC\u2019s ever-increasing block of friends, especially in Africa. Looking back at historic records, Somalia stands out as one of the most active campaigners for this cause at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Friendly ties between the people of Somalia and China date back <\/span>centuries. <\/span>Mogadishu has been the center of maritime trade since medieval times<\/span> and was a key port for the exchange of goods on the Maritime Silk Road<\/span>. <\/span>These friendly ties are<\/span> vividly inscribed in the surviving records of the renowned Chinese admiral Zheng He, who voyaged with his fleet along the Somali coastline and wrote about the people and cultures of Somali coastal cities.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as some <\/span>historians<\/span> record, <\/span>Somalis from the <\/span>Ajuran<\/span> Empire<\/span>, established in the 13<\/span>th<\/span> century,<\/span> may have been the first Africans to establish diplomatic ties with the Ming Dynasty when they gifted a giraffe and incense to emperor Yongle<\/span> more than 600 years ago<\/span>. <\/span>At the same time, the Somali scholar and explorer Said of Mogadishu may have been the first African to learn and translate the Chinese language, as tales of his <\/span>journey to China in the fourteenth century are well recorded in<\/span> the famous <\/span>traveler<\/span> Ibn Battuta\u2019s journals.<\/span><\/p>\n

More recently, <\/span>Somalia was the first country in East Africa to establish diplomatic relations with the people\u2019s republic of China merely months after gaining independence in December 1960. <\/span>And s<\/span>ince then, Somalia\u2019s adherence to the One China Principle has always been loud and firm. Somalia\u2019s representatives never shied from denouncing the injustice practiced against the People\u2019s Republic at the UN and earnestly advocated for the restoration of China\u2019s seat to the legal representative of its people.<\/span><\/p>\n

More significantly, <\/span>Somalia <\/span>sponsored two proposals to restore the PRC\u2019s rights at the UN on two separate occasions and was <\/span>one of the 23 countries <\/span>that co-sponsored the famous UNGA resolution 2758.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking back at <\/span>the records of addresses made by Somali representatives at the UN General Assembly and at the UN Security Council since Somalia was admitted to the UN in September 1960, I have found that Somali representatives missed no opportunity to express their strong and firm support for China\u2019s case. They voiced their frustration time and time again at the denial of adequate representation at the world body of a nation representing a quarter of the world\u2019s population at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

On October 6<\/span>TH<\/span>, 1961, in one of Somalia\u2019s first addresses at the UN General Assembl<\/span>y<\/span>,<\/span> Abdullahi Issa,<\/span> the<\/span>n <\/span>head of the Somali delegation asserted \u201c<\/span>I do not think it is appropriate to continue to ignore the existence of a <\/span>government<\/span> which exercises sovereignty over a vast area of land inhabited by over 600 million people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the following years, <\/span>Somalia\u2019s representatives to the UN continued to raise the issue every time they took the podium questioning the merits of denying the admission of the lawful and legitimate Government of the Peoples Republic of China to join the deliberations<\/span>. More so as important discussions on<\/span>disarmament were taking place.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the 22<\/span>nd<\/span> session of the UN General Assembly o<\/span>n 27 September 1967, Ambassador Abdulrahim Abby Farah <\/span>referred to the exclusion of the People\u2019s Republic of China from its rightful place at the United Nations as \u201cIllogical and against the interest of the world community\u201d. And o<\/span>n the 23<\/span>rd<\/span> of <\/span>October<\/span>1968,<\/span> the head of Somalia\u2019s mission to the UN, Mr. Haji Farah Ali Omar declared at the 23<\/span>rd<\/span> session of the UN General Assembly that \u201c<\/span>the absence of the Government of the People’s Republic of China makes progress towards the solution of many international problems difficult.<\/span> Such a problem is that of disarmament, where the co-operation of all the <\/span>M<\/span>ajor <\/span>P<\/span>owers is necessary for a <\/span>definitive<\/span> solution.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

W<\/span>hile participating in the 24<\/span>th<\/span> session of the UN General Assembly on 7<\/span>th<\/span> October 1969, Somalia\u2019s Prime Minister <\/span>at the time <\/span>Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal questioned the capacity of the United Nations authority to carry its full weight when it fails to practice the principle of universality. He is famously quoted as saying \u201c<\/span>We cannot ask a State to respect our authority when we exclude that State from participation in our decision-making machinery.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And as stated by the late Somali Prime Minister, Omar <\/span>Arteh<\/span>Ghalib when he served as Somalia\u2019s envoy at the 26<\/span>th<\/span> session of UNGA <\/span>on <\/span>28 September 1971, Somalia has \u201c<\/span>always <\/span>rejected the legal fictions, the procedural devices and the semantics that have been used to keep the true representatives of China from their rightful places in the United Nations\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Perhaps more notably, o<\/span>utside the UN compound, <\/span>Somalia\u2019s <\/span>representatives were also vocal<\/span> advocates in global media<\/span> for the restoration of the<\/span> legal rights of the<\/span> government of the People\u2019s Republic of China <\/span>in the <\/span>Security Council and the General Assembly as well as other UN agencies. <\/span>When<\/span>interview<\/span>ed<\/span> by the CBS Middle East Correspondent <\/span>Mitchell Krauss <\/span>in 1971 <\/span>on this same issue, Ambassador Abdulrahim Abby Farah, Somalia\u2019s envoy to the UN at the time, earnestly stressed<\/span> \u201c<\/span>It is not for my government or any other government to say how the people of China should conduct their internal affairs. Taiwan is part and parcel of China.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, t<\/span>he all-weather friendship, solidarity and mutual respect for each other\u2019s <\/span>independence, <\/span>sovereignty and territorial integrity has only grown stronger with time. Today, China ranks amongst Somalia\u2019s top trading partners and is one of the more popular destinations for Somali students studying abroad.<\/span> At the same time, China has continued to show unfaltering support for Somalia throughout the past 6 decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, as<\/span> Somalia advances along the road to recovery and reconstruction, <\/span>Somalis<\/span> eagerly <\/span>hope to achieve significant development milestones under<\/span> cooperative initiatives with their all-weather friend, such as<\/span> the Forum on China Africa Cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative as well as the Global Development Initiative recently proposed by <\/span>P<\/span>resident Xi Jinping.<\/span><\/p>\n

On t<\/span>he 25<\/span>th<\/span> of October<\/span> 1971, a proposal was submitted to the 26<\/span>th<\/span>United Nations General Assembly by 23 member states. This proposal called for the restoration of the lawful rights of the People\u2019s Republic of China <\/span>at the UN and<\/span> allowing it proper representation at this world body. It was on this historic day that UNGA resolution No. 2758 was passed,<\/span> and for the first time in UN history, developing nations had their voices heard<\/span> and their collective strength demonstrated<\/span>. <\/span>This week, as we celebrate the 50<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary of this event, we are reminded of the significance of strength in unity.<\/span><\/p>\n

This remarkable achievement was largely obtained by the active advocacy and campaigning spearheaded by <\/span>several<\/span> African Nations.<\/span> As Chairman Mao Zedong used to say, \u201c<\/span>It was our African brothers, the small and medium-sized countries that carried us into the United Nations\u201d. <\/span>The solidarity they had shown towards China was very much fueled by their shared historic experience fighting against foreign domination, colonization, and imperialism.<\/span><\/p>\n

China joined the United Nations as a founding member on <\/span>the 24<\/span>th<\/span> of October 1945 and<\/span> became a permanent member of the UN security council. Prior to that, China was one of four nations that drafted the United Nations Charter in 1944 and was accorded the honor of being the first to sign the UN Charter in recognition of its long-standing fight against aggression.<\/span><\/p>\n

However<\/span>,<\/span> after the 1949 revolution, the People\u2019s Republic of China was prevented from reclaiming its lawful seat at the UN. Over the following two decades, <\/span>efforts <\/span>spent by the People\u2019s Republic to restore its due representation at the world body<\/span> were swiftly blocked<\/span>.<\/span> That is <\/span>until resolution 2758 <\/span>was passed thanks to the PRC\u2019s ever-increasing block of friends, especially in Africa. Looking back at historic records, Somalia stands out as one of the most active campaigners for this cause at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Friendly ties between the people of Somalia and China date back <\/span>centuries. <\/span>Mogadishu has been the center of maritime trade since medieval times<\/span> and was a key port for the exchange of goods on the Maritime Silk Road<\/span>. <\/span>These friendly ties are<\/span> vividly inscribed in the surviving records of the renowned Chinese admiral Zheng He, who voyaged with his fleet along the Somali coastline and wrote about the people and cultures of Somali coastal cities.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as some <\/span>historians<\/span> record, <\/span>Somalis from the <\/span>Ajuran<\/span> Empire<\/span>, established in the 13<\/span>th<\/span> century,<\/span> may have been the first Africans to establish diplomatic ties with the Ming Dynasty when they gifted a giraffe and incense to emperor Yongle<\/span> more than 600 years ago<\/span>. <\/span>At the same time, the Somali scholar and explorer Said of Mogadishu may have been the first African to learn and translate the Chinese language, as tales of his <\/span>journey to China in the fourteenth century are well recorded in<\/span> the famous <\/span>traveler<\/span> Ibn Battuta\u2019s journals.<\/span><\/p>\n

More recently, <\/span>Somalia was the first country in East Africa to establish diplomatic relations with the people\u2019s republic of China merely months after gaining independence in December 1960. <\/span>And s<\/span>ince then, Somalia\u2019s adherence to the One China Principle has always been loud and firm. Somalia\u2019s representatives never shied from denouncing the injustice practiced against the People\u2019s Republic at the UN and earnestly advocated for the restoration of China\u2019s seat to the legal representative of its people.<\/span><\/p>\n

More significantly, <\/span>Somalia <\/span>sponsored two proposals to restore the PRC\u2019s rights at the UN on two separate occasions and was <\/span>one of the 23 countries <\/span>that co-sponsored the famous UNGA resolution 2758.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking back at <\/span>the records of addresses made by Somali representatives at the UN General Assembly and at the UN Security Council since Somalia was admitted to the UN in September 1960, I have found that Somali representatives missed no opportunity to express their strong and firm support for China\u2019s case. They voiced their frustration time and time again at the denial of adequate representation at the world body of a nation representing a quarter of the world\u2019s population at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

On October 6<\/span>TH<\/span>, 1961, in one of Somalia\u2019s first addresses at the UN General Assembl<\/span>y<\/span>,<\/span> Abdullahi Issa,<\/span> the<\/span>n <\/span>head of the Somali delegation asserted \u201c<\/span>I do not think it is appropriate to continue to ignore the existence of a <\/span>government<\/span> which exercises sovereignty over a vast area of land inhabited by over 600 million people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the following years, <\/span>Somalia\u2019s representatives to the UN continued to raise the issue every time they took the podium questioning the merits of denying the admission of the lawful and legitimate Government of the Peoples Republic of China to join the deliberations<\/span>. More so as important discussions on<\/span>disarmament were taking place.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the 22<\/span>nd<\/span> session of the UN General Assembly o<\/span>n 27 September 1967, Ambassador Abdulrahim Abby Farah <\/span>referred to the exclusion of the People\u2019s Republic of China from its rightful place at the United Nations as \u201cIllogical and against the interest of the world community\u201d. And o<\/span>n the 23<\/span>rd<\/span> of <\/span>October<\/span>1968,<\/span> the head of Somalia\u2019s mission to the UN, Mr. Haji Farah Ali Omar declared at the 23<\/span>rd<\/span> session of the UN General Assembly that \u201c<\/span>the absence of the Government of the People’s Republic of China makes progress towards the solution of many international problems difficult.<\/span> Such a problem is that of disarmament, where the co-operation of all the <\/span>M<\/span>ajor <\/span>P<\/span>owers is necessary for a <\/span>definitive<\/span> solution.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

W<\/span>hile participating in the 24<\/span>th<\/span> session of the UN General Assembly on 7<\/span>th<\/span> October 1969, Somalia\u2019s Prime Minister <\/span>at the time <\/span>Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal questioned the capacity of the United Nations authority to carry its full weight when it fails to practice the principle of universality. He is famously quoted as saying \u201c<\/span>We cannot ask a State to respect our authority when we exclude that State from participation in our decision-making machinery.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And as stated by the late Somali Prime Minister, Omar <\/span>Arteh<\/span>Ghalib when he served as Somalia\u2019s envoy at the 26<\/span>th<\/span> session of UNGA <\/span>on <\/span>28 September 1971, Somalia has \u201c<\/span>always <\/span>rejected the legal fictions, the procedural devices and the semantics that have been used to keep the true representatives of China from their rightful places in the United Nations\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps more notably, o<\/span>utside the UN compound, <\/span>Somalia\u2019s <\/span>representatives were also vocal<\/span> advocates in global media<\/span> for the restoration of the<\/span> legal rights of the<\/span> government of the People\u2019s Republic of China <\/span>in the <\/span>Security Council and the General Assembly as well as other UN agencies. <\/span>When<\/span>interview<\/span>ed<\/span> by the CBS Middle East Correspondent <\/span>Mitchell Krauss <\/span>in 1971 <\/span>on this same issue, Ambassador Abdulrahim Abby Farah, Somalia\u2019s envoy to the UN at the time, earnestly stressed<\/span> \u201c<\/span>It is not for my government or any other government to say how the people of China should conduct their internal affairs. Taiwan is part and parcel of China.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, t<\/span>he all-weather friendship, solidarity and mutual respect for each other\u2019s <\/span>independence, <\/span>sovereignty and territorial integrity has only grown stronger with time. Today, China ranks amongst Somalia\u2019s top trading partners and is one of the more popular destinations for Somali students studying abroad.<\/span> At the same time, China has continued to show unfaltering support for Somalia throughout the past 6 decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, as<\/span> Somalia advances along the road to recovery and reconstruction, <\/span>Somalis<\/span> eagerly <\/span>hope to achieve significant development milestones under<\/span> cooperative initiatives with their all-weather friend, such as<\/span> the Forum on China Africa Cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative as well as the Global Development Initiative recently proposed by <\/span>P<\/span>resident Xi Jinping.<\/span><\/p>\n

By<\/span>: Dr <\/span>Hodan<\/span> Osman Abdi,\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b>Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies, ZJNU<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 25th of October 1971, a proposal was submitted to the 26thUnited Nations General Assembly by 23 member states. This proposal called for the restoration of the lawful rights of the People\u2019s Republic of China at the UN and allowing it proper representation at this world body. It was on this historic day that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":407372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-407369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407375,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407369\/revisions\/407375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonna.so\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}