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Taiwan's U.N.-bid not aimed at provoking China: FM

ROC Central News Agency

2007-07-30 17:50:04

    Taipei, July 30 (CNA) Taiwan's moves to seek accession to the United Nations as a full member under the name of Taiwan is not aimed at provoking Beijing or announcing de jure independence, Foreign Minister James Huang said Monday.

    Huang said President Chen Shui-bian wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and current Security Council Chairman Wang Guangya who is also permanent representative of China to the U.N., July 27 to further amplify Taiwan's determination in joining the world body.

    The letters said that the U.N. Secretariat has misinterpreted Resolution 2758 adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1971 that gave the China seat to Beijing at Taiwan's expense, but did not address the issue of the Taiwan people's representation in the U.N., Huang noted.

    According to Huang, the status quo across the Taiwan Strait shows that Taiwan is a sovereign state just like China and that the People's Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan.

    Taiwan must let the U.N. Secretariat know clearly that based on a "misinterpretation" of Resolution 2758, the secretariat has been tremendously wrong to consider Taiwan part of China as it does not reflect the situation in East Asia and is not in line with the perception of the cross-Taiwan Strait situation by "most countries in the world," Huang said.

    Meanwhile, Huang went on, Chen's letter to Wang -- the first of its kind -- has great significance in terms of cross-strait relations. "Now the ball is in Wang's court and Beijing has no way to pretend it has no idea about the letter," Huang said.

    Noting that Beijing has criticized Taiwan's U.N. membership bid as a move to seek de jure independence, Huang said Taiwan will not cease its efforts to deepen democratization simply because of Beijing's criticism.

    He continued that looking back over the past 15 years, Beijing has labeled all major political activities in Taiwan -- regardless of whether they were the 1992 elections of legislators and national assembly members, the direct presidential election in 1996 or the downsizing of the Taiwan provincial government in 1998 -- as "important Taiwan moves toward independence."

    If Taiwan were to have "chickened out" after being criticized by Beijing over the years, the country would not have turned itself into a full-fledged democracy as it is today, Huang said.

    Taiwan officially filed a membership application with the United Nations July 19 in a letter signed by Chen.

    However, the letter was returned by the U.N. Secretariat based on Resolution 2758, which recognizes the representatives of the People's Republic of China government as "the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations" and expelling representatives of the Republic of China.

    The ROC has tried without success to re-enter the United Nations since 1993. This year marks the first time it has changed tactics by bidding to join the world body under the name of Taiwan.

    Taiwan claims that the U.N. Secretariat has "no right" to reject the country's application and that the matter should be decided by all U.N. member states.

(By Deborah Kuo)

ENDITEM/J