UN chief Ban: UN members consider Taiwan a part of China

Asia-Pacific News

Jul 28, 2007, 12:51 GMT

Taipei - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that Taiwan cannot join the United Nations because UN members consider Taiwan part of China, the Central News Agency (CNA) said on Saturday. CNA said that Ban made the remark - his first open statement on Taiwan's controversial application for UN membership - on Friday while visiting a US company in San Jose, California. Ban made the remark in response to a question posed by a CNA reporter about whether a rejection of Taiwan's application would pose a violation of the UN Charter which upholds the principle of 'universality of membership.' In reply, Ban said when the UN passed Resolution 2758 in 1971 to expel Taipei and accept Beijing, that resolution recognized China as the sole legitimate representative of China and that Taiwan was part of China. 'The UN's decision (on rejecting Taiwan's application) is based on this,' he told CNA, adding that the UN observes the 'one China' policy. 'The status of a UN member must be decided by UN member countries and UN membership is only given to sovereign countries. The current UN stance sees China as the sole sovereign government of China and Taiwan is part of China,' he said. Taiwan has been the seat of the exiled Republic of China (ROC) since 1949 when the Chinese Nationalists lost the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan. The Chinese Communists changed China's name to the People's Republic of China (PRC), but the Chinese Nationalist government continued to call itself the ROC and continued to hold China's seat in the UN. In 1971, the UN General Assembly passed Reslution 2758 to accept the PRC and to expel the ROC, or the Taiwan government. Since 1993, Taiwan has been launching an international campaign to rejoin the UN under the name of ROC. After failure each year, this year Taiwan is applyinng for UN members as a new nation called 'Taiwan.' The application, signed by President Chen Shui-bian, was delivered to the UN secretariat by Taiwan's representative office in New York, but was returned unopened to the office. Undaunted, Taiwan plans to seek a new interpretation of Resolution 2758 - possibly at the International Court of Justice - and to hold a referendum on UN membership in March 2008. Taiwan leaders claim that Resolution 2758 has solved the issue of China's representative in the UN, but has not solved the issue of Taiwan's representation in the UN because has not even mentioned 'Taiwan.' Taiwan is a sovereign country and its 23 million people deserve representation in the UN, they said. Taiwan is currently recognized by only 24 mostly small nations which speak up for UN membership for Taipei each year at the UN General Assembly. But the majority of the 192 UN members have diplomatic ties with China and regard Taiwan as China's breakaway province. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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TaiwanLoverJul 28th, 2007 - 15:10:25

Ban Ki Moon is right. Taiwan is a part of China. I applaud international leaders who understand that (i.e. pretty much every head of state in the world except those 24 smaller nations).

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no TaiwanLoverJul 28th, 2007 - 17:25:31

Without fail, any article on Taiwan attracts comments from 'TaiwanLover' (or variations of that name).

''Taiwan is a part of China.''

This is a naturally ambiguous statement. The island we now refer to as Taiwan, historically has been part of 'China' in a racial/demographic sense. Taiwan is principally inhabited by members of the general race of Chinese and has been ruled by a succession of Chinese governing bodies.

Present day Taiwan the self-governing entity (a fact as plain as the island itself) was never a constituent of, nor ever governed by Communist China. Never.

You consistently gloss over these not-so-subtle subtleties and appear to proclaim that current day Taiwan is necessarily a constituent of Communist governed mainland China. This is literal nonsense.

I have to assume your motives are politically prejudiced, if only to spare you the accusation of plain and simple ignorance.

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god hath thpokenJul 28th, 2007 - 17:29:12

''that resolution recognized China as the sole legitimate representative of China and that Taiwan was part of China''

And we all know that the UN is necessarily infallible and would never need to alter any of it's resolutions.

*sigh*

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SP4: Aren't you glad...Jul 28th, 2007 - 22:05:59

...that the UN is not making law in our nation?

So much for the concept of self determination...

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