Overseas Taiwanese groups of different political stripes rallied in front of the UN headquarters Monday to support Taiwan's bid to join the world body.
At the same time, pro-China overseas Chinese groups also demonstrated nearby to express their opposition to Taiwan independence, after the UN General Assembly opened its annual plenary session earlier in the day.
Although the pro-Taipei and pro-Beijing groups shouted slogans against each other, they generally exercised self-restraint and their demonstrations ended peacefully.
Unlike in previous years, the pro-Taiwan demonstration was joined by parties and organizations from across the political spectrum. In the past, the annual event was usually dominated by the US East Coast chapter of the DPP and the pro-independence Taiwanese Association.
Lee Tieh-han (李鐵漢), one of the chief organizers of Monday's protest, said the activity could offer a good democratic lesson to mainland leaders -- that disputes should be resolved through communication and consultation.
Lee read a joint declaration of all the major Taiwan groups in the greater New York area, saying that even though they may have different political ideas, they all love Taiwan and identify themselves with the ROC. "We all take pride in Taiwan's economic and democratic achievements and look forward to seeing its sustained development," the declaration said.
It went on to point out that due to Taiwan's exclusion from the UN, the basic rights of the 23 million people of Taiwan have been impaired, as Taiwan cannot take part in U.N. discussion on problems related to their daily lives and cannot share the results of research.
The exclusion of Taiwan completely violates the basic principle and spirit of the UN charter and goes against the general world trend, the declaration said.
It demanded that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait sit down to talk on an equal footing and seek a solution to their disputes in a peaceful and rational manner.
"But before they settle their differences, it has to be understood that only the popularly elected Taiwan government can represent Taiwan's 23 million people," the declaration said, adding that China can by no means represent Taiwan, as it claims.
During the demonstration, the participants sang patriotic songs and several co-organizers delivered speeches urging the UN authorities to accept Taiwan's membership bid in line with the body's principle of membership universality. The UN ambassadors of several of Taiwan's allies, including Gambia, Nicaragua and Grenada, also attended the event to throw their support behind the bid.
Taiwan has been shut out of the UN since 1971, when Beijing took over the China seat at the expense of Taipei.
Over the past decade, Taiwan's diplomatic allies have annually presented a proposal asking the UN to discuss feasible measures to resolve the issue of Taiwan's representation. Because of Beijing's opposition, the proposal has consistently been killed in the UN Steering Committee and has failed to make the General Assembly agenda. The Steering Committee is expected to discuss in the next few days a similar proposal presented in July by Taiwanese allies to decide whether to include the proposal in this year's General Assembly agenda.
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