Taipei - Taiwan on Wednesday declared that it will make UN
Day on October 24 a national holiday to tell the world that the
island is determined to join the United Nations.
'This year is the first year that we have applied to join the UN
under the name of Taiwan. We want to tell the world that we will
never give up,' Premier Chang Chun-hsiung told a news conference.
On October 24, the day when the UN Charter was signed in 1945 by
50 UN members, Taiwan will hold an around-the -island Taiwan Join UN
Torch Relay to show the world that Taiwanese are united in the UN bid
despite threats from China.
China, or the Republic of China (ROC) government, was one of the
50 founding members of the UN. After the ROC lost the Chinese Civil
War to the Communists in 1949, it set up a government-in-exile in
Taiwan but continued to hold China's seat in the UN. In 1971, the UN
expelled the ROC to accept Communist China, or the People's Republic
of China (PRC), as the legitimate representative of China.
Taiwan launched an international campaign to rejoin the UN in
1993 under the name of ROC, but has failed each year due to
opposition from China.
At the 62nd UN General Assembly which opened on September 18,
Taiwan again applied for UN membership as a new country called
Taiwan. The UN General Assembly rejected the application citing its
one-China policy which says Taiwan is part of China.
But Taiwan, undaunted, said it will keep trying each year until it
has succeeded, and will hold a referendum on joining the UN on March
22, 2008.
China has warned that it will see Taiwan's holding the UN
referendum as Taipei's first step towards seeking independence and
will not sit idle.
To counter Taiwan's UN bid, Lu De, an adviser to the Chinese
government, has suggested that China stage a rival referendum as an
alternative to waging war to stop Taiwan's seeking independence.
China sees Taiwan as its breakaway province and has warned that it
will recover Taiwan by force if Taipei seeks independence or
indefinitely delays reunification talks.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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