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President pledges to continue pushing Taiwan's U.N. bid

ROC Central News Agency

2007-10-10 13:22:26

    Taipei, Oct. 10 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian pledged Wednesday that Taiwan will continue its quest to join the United Nations despite its latest setback.

    Chen reiterated in his 2007 National Day address that by applying for U.N. membership under the name Taiwan, the country has no intention of challenging Resolution 2758 adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1971, according to which the Republic of China's U.N. seat was given to the People's Republic of China.

    He further said that Taiwan also has no intention of competing with the PRC for the right to represent China, "Resolution 2758 neither defined Taiwan as a part of the PRC nor affirmed the proposition that the PRC has any right to sovereignty over Taiwan, " Chen noted.

    Stressing that it is a historical fact and the status quo that Taiwan and the PRC are two sovereign, independent nations, Chen said the PRC has neither the right nor the ability to represent the 23 million people of Taiwan.

    Though thwarted, the country's first membership application under the name Taiwan received unprecedented attention this year, with representatives of more than 140 U.N. member states participating in a debate on the issue during the annual session of the General Assembly and media reports on the bid numbering more than four times as many as in the previous year, Chen said. "This all goes to show that this year's efforts to join the United Nations have been a diplomatic success and have greatly raised Taiwan's visibility in the international community," he said.

    Citing the results of a recent opinion survey in which 70 percent of Americans said they would support U.N. membership for Taiwan if a referendum on the issue were passed in Taiwan, Chen said this shows whether the people of Taiwan are united is a factor crucial in whether the U.N. membership bid will succeed.

    Meanwhile, Chen again urged the ruling and opposition parties to work together to amend the Referendum Act as soon as possible to address the "absurdity" and "unreasonableness" of the law, such as restrictions on the referendum topics, depriving administrative agencies of the right to initiate referendums, and excessively high thresholds for referendum petitions and passage of referendums.

    The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) , which is pushing for a referendum on the U.N. bid alongside the March 2008 presidential election, aims to collect 2 million signatures by the end of this month for the party's petition, in the hope that the number can be recognized as a Guinness World Record.

    While Taiwan has tried without success to have the United Nations consider the issue of its representation since 1993, this year marks the first time the country has applied to join the world body under the name Taiwan.

    However, following the return of Taiwan's application by the U.N. Secretariat first in July and again in August, an item endorsed by 17 of Taiwan's diplomatic allies asking the United Nations to address Taiwan's membership application was also excluded from the agenda of the 62nd session of the General Assembly.

(By Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/Li