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U.N. accession a serious bid: president

ROC Central News Agency

2007-09-02 16:01:13

    Taipei, Sept. 2 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Sunday that the country's efforts to seek membership at the United Nations are a painstaking yet serious mission that requires wholehearted support of the country's compatriots.

    Chen said that the late President Chiang Kai-shek was wrong in the early 1970s when he rejected a U.S. proposal to have both the Republic of China on Taiwan and the People's Republic of China on the Chinese mainland represented in the U.N. after Beijing was given the "China seat" in the U.N. at the expense of Taiwan.

    He added that Chiang's decision left Taiwan to suffer the consequences and resulted in today's painstaking efforts to rejoin the world body.

    Chen complained that lately some people have said that he should apologize to the people for pushing ahead with a referendum on Taiwan's U.N. bid, which has allegedly caused relations between Taiwan and the United States to sink to a new low.

    He asked whether it is right to demand somebody who has not done anything harmful to the country, someone who has ceaselessly worked to protect the rights of the Taiwan people, to apologize?

    Meanwhile, he called for the Taiwan public not to be fooled any longer by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) , whose presidential candidate, Ma Ying-jeou, has also pushed for a U.N. bid referendum, but under the name of the ROC, instead of "Taiwan."

    Noting that the people of Taiwan have been cheated by the KMT for decades when it comes to the country's U.N. bid, Chen said the KMT's attempt to pursue rejoining the U.N. under the ROC label will never succeed.

    Chen made the remarks during a meeting with a group of teachers from around northern Taiwan.

    He called for all of Taiwan's people to join the rally to be held in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan Sept. 15 to drum up support for the efforts to push for Taiwan's U.N. membership under the name Taiwan.

    He also expressed hope that the number of signatures gathered in support of a referendum on the U.N. bid under the name Taiwan will exceed 8 million by the end of October.

(By Deborah Kuo)

ENDITEM/jnc