After Soviet-backed communists took over China in 1949, the previous government fled to Taiwan and matured into a "vibrant and competitive democratic system" with freedom of religion, speech, assembly, and press. In 1971, the UN General Assembly voted to make the communist government the "only lawful" representative of China to the UN and expelled the government of Taiwan. From 1993 to 2007, Taiwan tried to reestablish itself in diplomatic circles by applying to regain its lost seat at the UN, but Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon rejected the 2007 application and later said "the position of the United Nations is that Taiwan is part of China." Taiwan is currently forbidden from having representation at the UN while having a larger population than 72% of UN members and a larger economy than 85% of them.