The Executive Yuan's Referendum Evaluation Committee held a hearing yesterday on whether Taiwan should participate in the UN as "Taiwan," and panelists agreed the real issue was winning greater recognition of the nation's sovereignty, not whether there should be a referendum about a UN bid.
"When we are deciding whether there should be a referendum, we must evaluate the controversialness of the issue, whether the issue will concern the public and whether the issue will become new national or government policy," said Yang Tai-shun (
"I would like to ask if today's issue fits any of the requirements I just mentioned," Yang said.
"Even if the result of the referendum shows that the answer is yes -- we want to join the UN as `Taiwan.' So what? Will it change anything? No," he said
Yang said it cost NT$400 million (US$12 million) to hold a referendum, so the committee could not be careful enough when it came to evaluating what issues to put to a referendum.
Hsu Ching-hsiung (許慶雄), a law professor, said the UN bid should not be a referendum issue because no Taiwanese person would veto such an idea.
"We should discuss how we are going to join the UN," Hsu said.
He said when the Republic of China (ROC) withdrew from the UN in 1971, the People's Republic of China (PRC) succeeded the ROC's legal authorization and UN seat.
"That means the `ROC' is a trademark, but the trademark now belongs to the PRC. The PRC has the right to decide whether they want to use the name `ROC' or put it away," Hsu said.
"How can you try to argue for using somebody else's trademark when the trademark does not belong to you?" Hsu said.
Former representative to the US Stephen Chen (陳錫蕃) said a referendum should be held instead to determine whether Taiwan should declare formal independence.
He said that to join the UN, the applicant must be an independent country with endorsement and support from foreign allies.
Taiwan's biggest problem is that the official name of the country is the ROC, but this name is no longer recognized by the majority of countries in the world, Chen said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods