The government pledged yesterday to forge ahead with its campaign for UN membership as China celebrated a victory after a Taiwanese application to enter the world body was rejected for the 15th straight year.
A UN General Assembly committee decided late on Wednesday against placing Taiwan's application on the Assembly's agenda after strong opposition from Beijing.
Taiwan has three diplomatic allies sitting on the 28-member General Committee. Palau proposed to discuss the motion with an open debate which was supported by Honduras and Gambia.
Except for the chairman, the 24 committee members -- who all recognize China -- voted against the proposal and in favor of a two-versus-two debate.
During the debate, St Vincent and the Grenadines and the Solomon Islands spoke in favor of Taiwan, while China and Egpyt spoke against it, said Janos Tisovszky, spokesman for the assembly president.
The chairman ruled that the motion would not be included in the agenda of the General Assembly due to the lack of consensus.
This was the first time the nation had applied under the name "Taiwan" instead of its formal title, "Republic of China" (ROC).
Under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) the ROC was a founding nation of the world body in 1945 and was one of the five permanent members of its Security Council. The ROC's seat was taken by the People's Republic of China in 1971.
Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday expressed regret over the UN General Committee's rejection of Taiwan's membership application.
Ministry Spokesman David Wang (王建業) told a press conference yesterday morning the ministry was not surprised at the outcome because it was more difficult politically to apply for UN membership under the name "Taiwan."
Wang said the General Committee spent about an hour discussing Taiwan's application. The motion was endorsed by 16 of the country's diplomatic allies, who requested the issue be included as a supplementary item on the agenda of the 62nd session of the General Assembly.
"China is bullying us with all its might. We knew it was a very difficult task and we will continue our efforts in the years to come," Wang said.
Despite Beijing's suppression, Wang said Taiwan's UN campaign has received much publicity this year.
Although the attempt failed again, Wang said the country's diplomatic allies could still speak in favor of Taiwan during the General Assembly meeting, which begins today, and the general debate, which begins on Tuesday.
"It is a long-term project," Wang said.
Asked about the next step, Wang said the country will not give up until the mission is accomplished, but that it is not a priority at the moment to take the case to the International Court of Justice.
Nor will the country resort to radical measures, such as developing nuclear weapons, to push the UN campaign, Wang said.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (
"No one can change the fact that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territories," China's state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Jiang as saying.
Just before Wednesday's vote, Chinese UN Ambassador Wang Guangya (王光亞) described Taiwan's UN entry bid as a plot to promote independence.
He said President Chen Shui-bian (
"Instead of offering blessings to the Taiwan compatriots, these activities can only have disastrous consequences," Xinhua, in a separate report, quoted Wang as saying. "We hope and believe that the Taiwan compatriots can clearly see Chen's ulterior motives."
Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets last Saturday to support the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) rally in Kaohsiung City in favor of holding a referendum on the country's UN bid under the name "Taiwan."
On the same day, the KMT held a parallel rally in Taichung City, calling for a "return" to the UN under the name Pepublic of China.
In Taipei, DPP lawmakers yesterday expressed their disappointment with the UN General Assembly Committee decision, while KMT lawmakers slammed the government for squandering money on the matter.
DPP legislative caucus whip Wang Tuoh (
"The UN is merely a stage where international hegemonies vie with each other for their own interests," he said.
DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (
It was very "improper" that Ban, in his capacity as UN secretary-general, wrongly interpreted the Resolution 2758 to justify Taiwan's exclusion from the UN, Hsiao said.
The KMT legislative caucus estimated that the government had spent as much as NT$100 million (US$3 million) promoting the UN bid.
The defeat of the application for UN membership under the name "Taiwan" proved that "it was a false issue," KMT Legislative caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) said.
"The only concrete result was that a large sum of taxpayers' money was spent by the DPP government to get votes for the [DPP] party," Kuo said.
The KMT legislative caucus said yesterday it would file a misconduct lawsuit against relevant government agencies and state-run business heads who provided funds for the Government Information Office's (GIO) UN bid advertising campaign on the grounds that the "budget were misused."
In response, GIO Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (
DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (
The DPP hopes the torch relay will help the party achieve its goal of collecting more than 2 million signatures by the end of next month for its initiative to hold a referendum on applying to join the UN under the name "Taiwan," he said.
Lin also claimed that according to intelligence, Beijing has put pressure on the KMT by closely watching whether or not top KMT officials joined the signature drive for the KMT's proposed UN referendum.
If the KMT's UN referendum bid were to fail, some of the KMT heavyweights -- such as former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) -- who share close relations with Beijing should be blamed, Yu said.
KMT spokesman Su Jun-pin (
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary