Taiwan began its 11th bid to join the UN as 15 of its diplomatic allies submitted a joint proposal to the body in support of the nation's entry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
"It's our hope that countries lacking diplomatic ties with Taiwan will speak for us on the floor of the UN General Assembly," Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (
The proposal said Taiwan's exclusion from the UN is a moral and legal challenge for the international community.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMESN
The proposal also asked the UN General Assembly to include a supplementary item entitled "Question of the Representation of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the United Nations" on the agenda of its 58th session, slated to begin on Sept. 16.
The 15 countries are Belize, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Commonwealth of Dominica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gambia, Grenada, Malawi, Nicaragua, Palau, Sao Tome and Principe, Solomon Islands, Swaziland and Tuvalu.
"The Taiwan Presbyterian Church and local Aboriginal groups are slated to dispatch a large mission to New York City to get our views across," Kau said.
Although Taiwan has been frustrated by its inability to return to the UN fold since it was expelled in 1971, continuing to bid for access to the UN is essential since it can highlight the country's yearnings for a return to the body, he said.
"It is unjust that the 23 million people of Taiwan are not represented at the UN. We have to make this known to the international community," Kau said.
When asked why the country didn't use "Taiwan" in its UN bid instead of "Republic of China (Taiwan)," Kau said the ROC remains the nation's formal designation according to the Constitution, adding that the word Taiwan in parentheses could help clarify the difference between the ROC and the People's Republic of China (PRC).
A memorandum attached to the proposal said Taiwan is a free and peace-loving state, and that its democratically elected government is the only legitimate body able to represent the interests and wishes of the people of Taiwan at the UN.
It also argued that UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, adopted on Oct. 25, 1971, which seated Beijing at the UN, did not resolve the issue of Taiwan's representation.
Kau said the resolution has been misinterpreted to justify Taiwan's exclusion.
The resolution recognized the PRC government as the only legitimate representative of China to the UN and "to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek (
"The resolution expelled the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek, but the [current] government in Taiwan is not equal to the Chiang Kai-shek regime. This resolution is not applicable to contemporary Taiwan," said Kau, a former political scientist at Brown University in the US.
Kau also said the government has no plan to hold a referendum on the nation's UN bid.
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA