# Liu Chieh

Liu Chieh (Chinese: 劉鍇; 27 May 1907 – 12 February 1991) was a diplomat of the Republic of China. He represented China at the United Nations from 1962 to 1971, and was the last Permanent Representative of the Republic of China to the UN.

## Early life

Liu was born on 1907 in Xiangshan County, Guangdong. He studied at Oxford University and practiced as a barrister in China.

## Diplomatic career

On 6 June 1930, he was appointed secretary of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Legislative Yuan of the Nationalist Government. In 1931, Liu officially joined China's diplomatic corps and on 28 January 1932, he was appointed Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nationalist Government. He was an advisor to the Chinese delegation at the meetings that established the League of Nations and served as Second Secretary of the Office of the Plenipotentiary Representative to the League of Nations.
He served as the acting First Secretary of the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom and later the First Secretary of the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom. After 1937, he served as minister to the United Kingdom and minister counselor of the Chinese Embassy in the United States. In August 1945, following the end of World War II, he served as deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and representative of the Far East and Pacific Division of the United Nations War Crimes Commission.
Liu was the Chinese delegate to the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944 and to the 1945 conference in San Francisco that resulted in the founding of the United Nations. In 1947, the Chinese government appointed him as the government's representative on the United Nations Trusteeship Council and as chief representative to the founding conferences of the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Telecommunication Union. In June of the same year, he was appointed ambassador of the Republic of China to Canada.
After the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War and proclaimation the People's Republic of China in 1949, Liu joined the Republic of China's government on Taiwan. From Taiwan, he resumed serving as ambassador to Canada until 1962, when he was appointed as the Permanent Representative of the Republic of China at the UN, succeeding Tsiang Tingfu. During his tenure, he served as the President of the Security Council numerous times. Liu was China's representative at the UN when the General Assembly voted in Resolution 2758 in 23 October 1971 to transfer China's UN seat to the People's Republic of China. Before the vote was tabled, Liu delivered the Republic of China's last statement in the UN:
   "In view of the frenzied and irrational manners that have been exhibited in this hall, the delegation of the Republic of China has now decided not to take part in any further proceedings of this General Assembly... We shall continue to struggle with like minded Governments for the realisation of the ideals upon which the United Nations was founded and which the General Assembly has now betrayed."
After giving the last statement, he led a walk-out protest at the General Assembly just prior to the vote. Following this, the People's Republic of China took over China's seat in the UN, with Huang Hua becoming the first permanent representative of the People's Republic to China to the United Nations.
On 10 March 1972, Liu was appointed Ambassador of the Republic of China to the Republic of the Philippines and submitted to the National Book on 23 March 1972. During his tenure, on 6 February 1974, he and the Ambassador of the Republic of Vietnam to the Philippines, Duong Hoang Thanh, were handed a diplomatic note of protest by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs the Philippines, Carlos Romulo, after a military show of force involving both countries occurred at Kalayaan, Palawan. Liu stepped down from his position on 6 June 1975, when the Philippines switched its diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China.
Following his return to Taiwan in 1975, he served as national policy adviser to the Presidential Office and in 1980, he served as adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was elected as a member of the 11th and 13th Central Advisory Committees of the Kuomintang where he served as one of the senior advisors to Lee Teng-hui.

## Later life

After his retirement from government work, Liu moved to the United States where he settled in San Francisco. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage on 12 February 1991 at a hospital in Fairfax, Virginia, at the age of 83.

## Personal life

Liu was married and had a son as well as a stepdaughter.