Taipei - China, under pressure from the United States, has
dropped the plan to initiate a United Nations vote on 'Taiwan is part
of China,' a Taiwan newspaper said on Wednesday.
The China Times, in a dispatch from Washington DC, said China has
canceled the plan for the UN vote. China now says that it is UN
members' consensus that Taiwan is part of China, so there is no need
for a vote.
In a nine-point clarification, the US told the UN that 'Taiwan is
part of the People's Republic of China' is not the consensus of the
majority UN members, and is not the consistent policy of the US.
Washington has conveyed this stance to both the UN and Taipei, the
mass-circulation Chinese-language paper said.
China originally planned to ask UN members to vote on 'Taiwan is
part of China' to block Taiwan's bid to join the UN. Taiwan has been
seeking to join the UN since 1993 but stepped up its campaign this
year by applying to join the UN as a new country, called 'Taiwan,'
with President Chen Shui-bian signing the application which was
delivered to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Ban rejected Taipei's application, saying the Taiwan issue was
solved when the UN passed Resolution 2758 in 1971 to expel the
Republic of China (ROC) and accept the People's Republic of China
(PRC).
The ROC government lost China to the Chinese Communists in 1949 -
when it fled to Taiwan to set up its government-in-exile, still
called the ROC - but continued to hold China's UN seat until 1971.
Taiwan launched a campaign to rejoin the UN under the name of ROC
in 1993, but has failed each year due to opposition from China which
claims Taiwan is part of China and the Taiwan issue was solved by
Resolution 2758.
China is particularly worried this year because Taiwan is applying
for UN membership as 'Taiwan,' which causes China to fear that Taiwan
might change its name from ROC to Taiwan to seek formal independence
from China.
Most of the 192 UN members recognize China and only 24 countries
recognize Taiwan.
The Taiwan issue might be a main topic in the upcoming summit
between US President George W Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao,
held on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Sydney on Thursday.
Taiwan will be closely monitoring the Bush-Hu talk to see if there
are changes in the US and China's policies towards Taiwan.
If the Bush-Hu talk is detrimental to Taiwan, President Chen
Shui-bian would react in his video conference with US think tanks
Thursday evening. Chen might declare October 25, the day the UN
expelled Taiwan, as 'Taiwan Join UN Day,' the United Evening News
said.
But analysts said that China will not make Taiwan its top issue
at the APEC summit as the 21 leaders have more urgent issue to
discuss - climate change, anti-terrorism, trade and bilateral
cooperation.
On Wednesday, while meeting with overseas Chinese and the Chinese
embassy's staff in the Australian capital Canberra, Hu reiterated
Beijing's policy of seeking Taiwan-China unification and promoting
stability in the Taiwan Strait.
'In recent days Taiwan has been carrying out splitist activities
by seeking to rejoin the UN and preparing to hold a referendum on
joining UN. While we strive for peaceful reunification, we absolutely
will not tolerate anyone, in any form, separating Taiwan from the
motherland,' he warned.
Both Bush and Hu have already arrived in Australia for the APEC
leaders' summit to be held on Saturday and Sunday.
As China bars Taiwan's president from attending the APEC summit,
President Chen will send Stan Shih, founder of Taiwan's computer
giant Acer Group, as his envoy to the summit. Shih will depart for
Sydney on Thursday.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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