Taiwan Will Try New Approach To Joining United Nations

After being rejected the 14th year in a row in its bid for membership in the United Nations, Taiwan will try a new approach, its president, Chen Shuibian said yesterday.

Rather than applying for readmission as the Republic of China, whose seat Taiwan held until 1971, Taiwan will consider applying as a new member under the name "Taiwan."

"After 14 consecutive years of frustration, we must seriously consider a different strategy," Mr. Chen said. He said polls in Taiwan showed nearly 80% of the public supported applying under the name Taiwan.

The president made his remarks in a two-hour videoconference with a New York City audience in which he accused communist China, which has blocked Taiwan's admission to the United Nations, of "brutal oppression" of Taiwan. He also differed with the "one China" policy that America has adhered to since the Nixon administration.

"The two sides of the Taiwan strait are two different countries," Mr. Chen said. "There is only one China in the world, and that is the People's Republic of China. …We think Taiwan is an independent sovereign country."

Other speakers at the event, organized by the New Century Institute, a New York-based pro-Taiwan think tank, called Taiwan's exclusion from the United Nations a grave injustice.

A research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, John Tkacik Jr., noted that Taiwan has the "17th largest economy in the world." Mr. Chen said Taiwan's population, 23 million, is larger than that of the 50 least populous members of the United Nations.

Another panelist, a professor at the City University of New York, Peter Chow, said China has installed more than 800 ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan.

Asked byThe New York Sun why Taiwan would want to join the United Nations at a moment when the institution's reputation is so tainted by failure and corruption that increasing numbers of Americans think America should leave the organization, Mr. Chen said, "I believe that the U.S. will stay in the United Nations." He said joining the U.N. was Taiwan's "obligation as world citizens." He said the country's absence from the World Health Organization means Taiwan is the "only loophole in the global disease prevention network." He said Taiwanese fishermen are hurt because Taiwan cannot sign the International Convention on the Law of the Sea. And he said Taiwan has World Heritage Sites that could benefit from the protection and publicity that come with being placed on the U.N.'s list of such sites.

He called on America to support Taiwan's entry into the United Nations rather than maintaining a double standard. He said Taiwan's entry into the United Nations could force America to re-examine its "one China" policy. And he said it could lead to an American-Taiwanese free-trade agreement, which he said would be good for both America and Taiwan.

What name Taiwan uses to apply to the United Nations might seem a technicality, but the island nation has been forced by mainland China into assuming a series of aliases so that it can participate in world affairs. Mr. Chen noted that Taiwan competes in the Olympics under the name "Chinese Taipei," and it participates in the World Trade Organization as the "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu." It has previously applied for renewal of U.N. membership as the Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, and the Republic of China [Taiwan].

Mr. Chen said the Republic of China name is too confusing, noting that the name of Republic of China was mistakenly used on the White House South Lawn to introduce the communist Chinese national anthem during a recent visit to Washington by the Chinese communist leader, Hu Jintao. He said the Taiwan name is used more commonly in the international community, as in the American law known as the Taiwan Relations Act.

The bid for U.N. membership by Taiwan appears to be a long shot, given communist China's status as an economic and military power and communist China's consideration of Taiwan as a renegade province. In support of China's bid appeared yesterday the U.N. ambassadors of Nicaragua and Palau, neither of which is exactly a superpower. On the other hand, America in the Bush administration has increasingly spoken out in favor of a foreign policy based on support for freedom and democracy.Taiwan is a free democracy, while China is not.

Mr. Chen vowed that he would persist in the project for the remaining two years of his term. "Taiwan should not be kept outside the U.N. door," he said. "We will never give up."