In an unprecedented video conference with the United Nation Correspondents Association (UNCA) last night, President Chen Shui-bian (
The president spoke on behalf of Taiwan's UN bid, saying that Taiwan's unfair exclusion from the world body was tantamount to being an "international vagabond" and thus the country was the "victim of political apartheid."
Arguing that UN Resolution 2758, which recognized the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the representative of the people of China, did not address Taiwan's status, Chen said it is regrettable that "Resolution 2758 is wrongly interpreted to justify Taiwan's exclusion from taking part in the UN, and to deny the basic right of Taiwan's 23 million people to join the UN family."
According to UN Resolution 2758 in 1971, the PRC was dubbed the "only legitimate representative" of China. China's UN seat had previously been held by the Republic of China under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).
"Taiwan is Taiwan. It will not and can not compete with China's representative in the UN," Chen said. Citing the participation of both North Korea and South Korea and West Germany and East Germany as examples of a similar situation during his speech, Chen made a point of saying that Taiwan's pursuit of UN membership was not a challenge to the PRC's place in UN.
"A free and democratic country like Taiwan ... should not be a missing piece [in the world community]," Chen said during his 10-minute opening remarks in the conference.
Noting his recent decision to cancel a portion of the Han Kuang live-fire military drill, Chen stated that his intention was to demonstrate Taiwan's sincere desire and determination for cross-strait peace.
China's incessant obstruction of Taiwan would only further lacerate the feelings of Taiwanese people toward China and further the distance between the two, Chen said, adding that Taiwan would not shy away from its duty to get involved in international affairs.
"The president will, through the event, highlight the unfairness of Taiwan's exclusion from the world body and call on the international community to support Taiwan's UN membership bid, based on the principle of equality," said Presidential Office Secretary-General Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday, prior to the staging of the one-hour conference which started at 10:30pm Taiwan time.
Due to "obstruction from China" and the UN's assertion that holding the videoconference on UN property would violate UN resolutions, officials were forced to relocate the interview to nearby UN Plaza Hotel from its original location, the association's clubroom inside UN headquarters.
Given the location change, the videoconference thus was no longer hosted by the UNCA, but rather the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York, as UNCA president Anthony Jenkins said that he did not want to set a precedent.
During the one-hour videoconference, Chen gave an introductory speech, which was then followed by an English translation presented by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS