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Taipei keeps a low profile as it starts its annual UN bid

In an unusually low-profile manner, Taiwan has begun its UN bid this year, with 12 of its diplomatic allies having pledged to the UN to consider the issue of Taipei's representation in the world body, sources said yesterday.

"We have been instructed to be as low-key as possible in fear of others linking the bid with the `one country on each side' comment," a foreign ministry official, who declined to be named, told the Taipei Times.

The official said 12 of Taiwan's allies have sent a joint letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday, demanding the 57th UN General Assembly put the issue on the agenda as a "supplementary item," the official said.

The controversy over President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) remarks on Aug. 3, when he said there's "one country on each side" of the Taiwan Strait, has prompted officials to continue the nation's UN bid in a muted way, fearing any high-profile move would be interpreted by critics as an intent toward independence, the official said.

The foreign ministry had originally planned to hold a press conference on Thursday elaborating on Taipei's UN bid this year, but then cancelled the briefing.

Chen said on Aug. 3 that "Only Taiwan's 23 million people have the right to decide Taiwan's future or fate, or to change the status quo," adding that to hold a referendum deciding Taiwan's future would be a "basic human right" of all people in Taiwan.

But the joint letter to Annan, which formally kick-started Taiwan's UN bid for the 10th consecutive year, did not contain any wording related to the president's remarks, sources said.

Another foreign ministry official confirmed that the formal title for the proposal was: "the question of the representation of the Republic of China [Taiwan]."

Observers said Taiwan should keep an eye on how the US and EU member states would respond to Taipei's UN bid during the UN Steering Committee debate this year in the wake of Chen's remark.
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