UN again rejects Taiwan allies’ letter on UN bid

The United Nations has again rejected a letter jointly sent by 12 of Taiwan's diplomatic allies asking the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to deal impartially with Taiwan's application for U.N. membership (CNA report on March 17).

The rejection came nearly one month after the U.N.'s Office of Legal Affairs received the letter, in which the diplomatic allies said the U.N. Secretariat has misinterpreted Resolution 2758 by claiming the resolution recognised Taiwan as part of the People's Republic of China. In its reply letter, signed by the U.N. assistant secretary-general, the U.N. Secretariat still upholds its claim that "the government of the People's Republic of China is China's sole, legitimate representative to the United Nations," but it does not state that "Taiwan is part of China."

In October 2007, the U.N.'s Office of Legal Affairs returned a protest letter jointly sent by the 12 diplomatic allies; however, the allies addressed a letter again earlier in 2008 to the U.N. Secretariat expressing their support for Taiwan's U.N. membership bid. The 12 diplomatic allies that jointly signed the letter were St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Palau, the Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe, the Solomon Islands, Swaziland, Tuvalu, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Belize, and Saint Lucia. Meanwhile, Honduras and El Salvador, two of Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Central America, as well as Kiribati, an island country located in the central Pacific Ocean, decided to separately send their protest letters to the U.N.

In 2007, Taiwan applied to the world body for membership for the first time under the name "Taiwan", rather than its official title "Republic of China". The annual membership application -- the country's 15th consecutive bid -- was excluded from the agenda of the 62nd session of the U.N. General Assembly. Taiwan has been ruled separately since the end of a civil war between the Nationalist Party and the Chinese Communist Party, but Beijing insists it remains part of Chinese territory which must eventually be reunified. The U.N. switched recognition from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China in 1971.

(Source: Central News Agency)