In an unprecedented video conference with the United Nation Correspondents Association (UNCA) last night, President Chen Shui-bian (
The president spoke on behalf of Taiwan's UN bid, saying that Taiwan's unfair exclusion from the world body was tantamount to being an "international vagabond" and thus the country was the "victim of political apartheid."
Arguing that UN Resolution 2758, which recognized the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the representative of the people of China, did not address Taiwan's status, Chen said it is regrettable that "Resolution 2758 is wrongly interpreted to justify Taiwan's exclusion from taking part in the UN, and to deny the basic right of Taiwan's 23 million people to join the UN family."
According to UN Resolution 2758 in 1971, the PRC was dubbed the "only legitimate representative" of China. China's UN seat had previously been held by the Republic of China under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
"Taiwan is Taiwan. It will not and can not compete with China's representative in the UN," Chen said. Citing the participation of both North Korea and South Korea and West Germany and East Germany as examples of a similar situation during his speech, Chen made a point of saying that Taiwan's pursuit of UN membership was not a challenge to the PRC's place in UN.
"A free and democratic country like Taiwan ... should not be a missing piece [in the world community]," Chen said during his 10-minute opening remarks in the conference.
Noting his recent decision to cancel a portion of the Han Kuang live-fire military drill, Chen stated that his intention was to demonstrate Taiwan's sincere desire and determination for cross-strait peace.
China's incessant obstruction of Taiwan would only further lacerate the feelings of Taiwanese people toward China and further the distance between the two, Chen said, adding that Taiwan would not shy away from its duty to get involved in international affairs.
"The president will, through the event, highlight the unfairness of Taiwan's exclusion from the world body and call on the international community to support Taiwan's UN membership bid, based on the principle of equality," said Presidential Office Secretary-General Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday, prior to the staging of the one-hour conference which started at 10:30pm Taiwan time.
Due to "obstruction from China" and the UN's assertion that holding the videoconference on UN property would violate UN resolutions, officials were forced to relocate the interview to nearby UN Plaza Hotel from its original location, the association's clubroom inside UN headquarters.
Given the location change, the videoconference thus was no longer hosted by the UNCA, but rather the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York, as UNCA president Anthony Jenkins said that he did not want to set a precedent.
During the one-hour videoconference, Chen gave an introductory speech, which was then followed by an English translation presented by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (
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