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| Sunday, 14 August 2005 |
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Taiwan U.N. bid a failure - China BEIJING, Aug 13 (Reuters) - China, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province, said on Satuday the self-ruled island's 13th successive bid to join the United Nations was doomed to failure. Taiwan has tried to join the United Nations every year since 1993, but each time China and its allies, supporting Beijing's "one China" policy, have kept the door shut. "The nature of the proposals is that the Taiwan authority is trying to air 'two Chinas' or 'one China, one Taiwan' and 'Taiwan Independence' in the international community," Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan as saying. "Such activities violate the U.N. Charter and are unpopular and bound to fail." Taiwan, recognised by just 26 allies, mostly third world countries, launched its new bid to join the United Nations on Friday and asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to help keep the peace across the Taiwan Strait. The question of U.N. membership has raged since 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government lost the Chinese civil war to the communists on mainland China and fled to Taiwan, taking with him the Republic of China government. Chiang held on to China's U.N. seat until 1971, when the General Assembly expelled Taiwan and gave the seat to Beijing. China, which says the island must be reunified, by force if necessary, sits on the Security Council, has veto power and many more friends in the United Nations than Taiwan. Taiwan Foreign Minister Mark Chen said on Friday Taiwan had no intention of challenging China's U.N. seat. "The authorities in Beijing must understand their repeated efforts to suppress efforts by Taiwan's 23 million people to participate in the international community will only provoke the people of Taiwan and hurt peace in the Taiwan Strait." |
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