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Chen vows to continue bid for UN

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday vowed to persist with Taiwan's UN bid and said he would not stop until the nation becomes a full member.

The president made the remarks following the return of his letter to the Chinese ambassador to the UN.

Chen sent UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a letter last Friday and sent another to Beijing's UN representative, Wang Guangya (王光亞), in which he asked them to reconsider Taiwan's request to join the organization.

The letters were sent following Chen's first letter to Ban on July 18 requesting UN membership under the name "Taiwan," a departure from previous applications that had used the name "Republic of China" (ROC).

The UN Office of Legal Affairs rejected the letter on July 23, citing UN Resolution 2758.

Wang, who handed over the rotating chairmanship of the Security Council to the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Tuesday, told UN correspondents on Wednesday that he returned Chen's letter the same day that he received it.

Chen, in the latest issue of his weekly e-newsletter, said that more than 77 percent of the public supported the bid to join the UN, without citing a source for the figure.

"We can accomplish this mission impossible if we solidify a public consensus," he said. "We want to let the world hear the voice of the Taiwanese people."

Chen said that Taiwan had been excluded from the international community for far too long and China had repeatedly rejected the nation's sovereignty and suppressed its influence.

This year, the government adopted a new strategy by applying under the name "Taiwan" to emphasize the nation's sovereignty and democracy, he said.

"Taiwan, which is a liberal democracy, should not be isolated from world," he said.

"We will keep trying until the international community and the United Nations acknowledge our democratic development and accept Taiwan as a full member," he said.

Saying that it is important that the Taiwanese decide their own future, Chen said in Pingtung County yesterday that a planned referendum on whether to join the UN under the name "Taiwan" must be held.

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said separately yesterday the government must listen to the public and help them realize their dream of joining the UN.

"We cannot give up just because somebody is against it," she said.

Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), acting Presidential Office secretary-general, added that the administration realized the difficulty of the undertaking, but he urged the public and all political parties to support the campaign.

Taiwan must take this matter seriously for the world to take it seriously, he said.

Lin Yung-lo (林永樂), director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of International Organizations, told a press conference yesterday that the government would not rule out sending a letter to Kinshasa's ambassador to the UN.

no change

In New York, a UN official said on Wednesday that the UN's position on Taiwan's participation in the world body had not changed despite Taiwan's request for the world body to reconsider its membership application.

Marie Okabe, deputy spokeswoman for the secretary-general, made the remarks during a daily press briefing. When asked about the letters sent by Chen, she said she could not confirm at this point whether the UN had responded officially to the latest move by Taiwan.

Okabe noted that the previous application was returned in keeping with UN Resolution 2758, which she said is the basis of the UN's "one China" policy.

She was referring to the resolution adopted by the General Assembly in 1971 recognizing the People's Republic of China as "the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations."

Responding to a question on the issue by a Central News Agency reporter last week, Ban said that UN membership is only granted to sovereign countries and that the position of the UN is that "Taiwan is part of China."

separatist

Meanwhile, China's state controlled Xinhua news agency quoted Wang as calling Taiwan's latest move "a very serious separatist act seeking independence for Taiwan."

Expressing firm opposition to the move, Wang stressed that there is only one China in the world and that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China, according to Xinhua.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday also lashed out at Chen for humiliating the nation by sending the letter to Wang.

`arrogant'

"Chen and his government have failed to learn their lesson from their failures in foreign affairs over the past seven years," Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭), deputy director of the KMT's policy committee, said in a statement.

"The move is arrogant, and it's like pushing Taiwanese people in front of a car," Chang said.

Chen's letter to Ban prompted the UN secretary-general to say that Taiwan was part of the People's Republic of China.

"The government sending a letter now would only further damage Taiwan's position in the international community and hurt the feelings of the Taiwanese public," he said.

Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih and Jewel Huang
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