The Cabinet yesterday unveiled the logo for this year's UN bid.
The Government Information Office admitted that the logo, based on the image of a baseball, was inspired by Taiwan's favorite son -- Yankees pitcher Wang Chien-min (
"He [Wang] is a national role model. We took advantage of his popularity and decided to make it part of our bid for UN membership with the hope that our voice can be heard by more people," Cabinet spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (
Shieh made the remarks during a press conference yesterday morning.
"A great country must come up with a great dream. Our dream is to participate in the UN," Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) said. "The process for applying to the UN is like a baseball game. You do not know what will happen until the last minute of the game."
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
"Everybody is aware that [Wang] is famous for his `sinker.' Whenever he is pitching, he always concentrates on what he is doing. That is also what we are going to do regarding our UN bid," he said.
"I believe that more and more people will agree with our message -- `UN [membership] for Taiwan, Peace Forever,'" he said.
Chang said that on behalf of the nation, he appreciated the efforts of Taiwan's allies in the UN bid and their support in the UN assembly.
"I know that our friends have helped, are helping now and will continue to help us on this issue and I really appreciate it," he said.
Meanwhile, at a separate press conference yesterday Huang said that Taiwan had no intention of contending with China for UN representation and would not use the name "Republic of China" to return to the UN.
Huang said 15 of Taiwan's diplomatic allies had signed a proposal that was submitted on Tuesday.
The proposal requests that the UN General Assembly treat the nation's membership application impartially, he said.
Huang said the UN General Assembly, which will convene on Sept. 18, should urge the Security Council to handle Taiwan's application in accordance with UN procedures.
Taiwan's allies will also request that the proposal be listed as a supplementary item on the General Assembly's agenda, he said.
It is expected that the matter will be discussed at the General Committee meeting held on Sept. 19, Huang said.
The proposal follows the rejection of President Chen Shui-bian's (
Ban denied the application, saying that "Taiwan is a part of China."
Huang said that Ban's action had aroused many objections and the Asian Wall Street Journal also criticized Ban in an editorial in which the paper called him "King of the UN."
Huang said that Taiwan had no intention of going back to the disputes of 1971 : "We don't want to challenge the UN representation of the People's Republic of China and we have no intention of using `Republic of China' to return the UN."
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