Sun, Sep 11, 2022 page1

• Letter calls for Taiwan’s UN inclusion

  ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’: Taiwan, as a sovereign nation, meets all of the UN’s conditions for membership, but faces just one political hurdle ‘called China,’ FAPA’s president said

  • By Lee Hsin-fang and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  Global organizations representing Taiwanese communities overseas on Friday wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling for Taiwan’s inclusion in the UN as a full member under that name.

  The letter, which underscored Taiwan’s democratic form of government and contributions to the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, was cosigned by the US-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) and nine other groups in North America and Europe.

  In 1971, UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 transferred China’s seat from representatives of Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) government to the People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan, officially called the Republic of China, has since been excluded from the UN and its special agencies.

  

  The header of a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling for Taiwan’s inclusion in the UN and affiliated organizations is pictured in an undated photograph.

  Photo: Screenshot from the Facebook page of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs

  The resolution did not grant Beijing the right to represent the people or territory of Taiwan, the groups wrote in the letter, adding that China’s citation of that resolution in justifying Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN is “absurd and baseless.”

  “Meeting all the criteria of statehood under international law, Taiwan has long been an independent and sovereign country,” they said. “It is a proactive major contributor to the international community — a beacon of democracy for countries around the world to emulate.”

  The “continued exclusion of Taiwan from the UN system is not only unwise, unjust and unfair, but also is a blatant violation of the principles of universality and self-determination as enshrined in the UN Charter, and must be rectified immediately,” they said.

  

  Flags of US and UN are seen near the UN building at UN headquarters in New York on September 27, 2018.

  Photo: Reuters

  “The time is now for the United Nations and the rest of the world to jointly stand up against China and its lawless and out-of-control bullying of Taiwan,” they said, adding: “Enough is Enough.”

  The North American Taiwanese Medical Association, the North America Taiwanese Professors’ Association, the World Taiwanese Congress and the European Federation of Taiwanese Associations, among others, jointly signed the statement.

  Although Taiwanese appreciate US support for meaningful participation and renewal of the nation’s past involvement in the WHO as an observer under the name “Chinese Taipei,” such limitations are “humiliating” to Taiwanese, FAPA in a Facebook post cited its president Minze Chien (簡明子) as saying.

  

  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, left, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, second right, meet internally displaced people at a makeshift camp in Usta Muhammad, Pakistan, yesterday.

  Photo: AFP / Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office

  As a sovereign and independent country fulfilling all conditions for UN membership, the only hurdle to Taiwan joining the UN is “a political one [and] it is called China,” Chien was quoted as saying.

  The letter was issued ahead of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, which is from Tuesday to Sept. 27 at the UN’s headquarters in New York.

  The government on Tuesday said it would again ask diplomatic allies and like-minded countries to voice support at the annual General Assembly for the nation’s inclusion in the UN system.

  Additional reporting by CNA
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