The Taiwan Independence Party took to the streets outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday to ask that "Taiwan" rather than "ROC" be used in the nation's application to rejoin the UN.
Boorky Ho (何之杞), chairman of Taiwan Independence Party, said using Taiwan's official name would "only amount to wasting taxpayers' money" in the government's ninth attempt to rejoin the world body.
Ho said that the name ROC was hardly known to the international community.
It was UN Resolution No. 2758 that gave the ROC's seat in the world group to the PRC. "So it would be futile to use the name ROC for Taiwan's re-entry bid," Ho said.
Still, despite the fuss over this year's UN bid, Ho conceded that yesterday's street protest was actually meant to draw attention to the independence party's legislative candidates.
William Huang (黃玉炎) and Chen Da-cheng (陳達成) are eyeing legislative seats, and the event was intended to "raise their profile," Ho said.
Officials from the ministry said it was impossible to apply for UN membership using any name other than the ROC.
The ROC is the country's formal designation as stipulated by the Constitution, so it's proper to apply using this title, said Katharine Chang (
In a now-annual ritual, the government is the midst of trying to regain its UN seat, which was lost in 1971.
This year's attempt is likely to fail, as China -- a permanent member of the UN Security Council -- will stop at nothing to ensure that Taiwan is denied recognition in the international community.
Officials from Taipei's representative office in New York said that while "ROC" would be used in formal papers related to this year's bid, publicity campaign materials would use terms such as "UN for Taiwan" and "ROC (Taiwan)."
That publicity campaign is well underway. On Aug. 8, government officials invited UN representatives from Taiwan's allies to a tea party.
At the gathering, pro-Taiwan diplomats explained the purpose of their proposal to urge the UN to consider Taiwan's re-entry.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan dated Aug. 8, 10 of Taiwan's 28 diplomatic allies asked the UN to "examine the exceptional international situation pertaining to the ROC on Taiwan."
Membership for Taiwan would ensure the "fundamental right of its twenty-three million people" to participate in the UN, the letter said.
The publicity war has been wagered over the airwaves as well. Andrew Hsia (
Hsia said UN Resolution No. 2758 resolved only the question of which government should represent the Chinese mainland. But it failed to address the question of who has the right to represent Taiwan's 23 million people, he said. Thus leaving the question open for re-interpretation.
The UN steering committee in will decide early next month whether to include the "Taiwan issue" on the General Assembly's agenda.
US-based Taiwanese groups are scheduled to hold a rally when the General Assembly opens on Sept. 11 to voice support for Taiwan's UN bid.
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