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Joseph Wu defends government's UN referendum plan

"The dilemma for us is that the US can call Taiwan `Taiwan,' and we can also call Taiwan `Taiwan' here in the United States. We cannot call ourselves the `Republic of China' [in the US]. But we cannot make any mention that the title of `Republic of China' is going to be changed [in Taiwan]."

Joseph Wu, representative to the US

Representative to the US Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), taking issue with Washington's position on the planned referendum on UN membership under the name "Taiwan," defended Taiwan's decision to go ahead with the poll in the face of Taipei-Washington differences on the issue.

Despite communications over the past several months, there has been no closing of the divide between the two countries on the issue, Wu said on Wednesday in answer to questions after an address on Taiwan's democracy before three Washington think tanks.

"We haven't resolved this issue. The two countries are still debating this issue," Wu said. "But of course, the referendum is going to be held together with the presidential election."

Wu noted that supporters of the referendum had gathered more than 2.7 million signatures in favor of having the issue on the ballot along with next March's presidential election.

That figure was "more than enough" to assure that the referendum will be on the ballot, he said.

Prodded by unrelenting and vociferous opposition to the referendum by China, the administration of US President George W. Bush has come out strongly against the poll, which has strained relations between Taipei and Washington.

The State Department has, perhaps as retaliation, blocked the sale of advanced F-16 fighter aircraft to Taiwan. The US also refused to allow President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to make a transit stop in the continental US en route to allies in Central America earlier this year.

Saying he would not directly criticize the Bush administration, Wu nevertheless mounted a spirited defense of the UN resolution and Taiwan's right to call itself Taiwan instead of its formal title, the Republic of China (ROC).

"The dilemma for us is that the US can call Taiwan `Taiwan,' and we can also call Taiwan `Taiwan' here in the United States. We cannot call ourselves the `Republic of China' [in the US]. But we cannot make any mention that the title of `Republic of China' is going to be changed [in Taiwan]," he said.

The US refers only to Taiwan, not the ROC, in the Taiwan Relations Act governing bilateral relations and in internal State Department documents, Wu said.

"There is nothing wrong for us to call Taiwan `Taiwan,'" Wu said.

He also took issue with US objections to changing the national flag, which he pointed out was based on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) emblem.

"Even though we are not allowed to have the opportunity to have the national flag flow in Washington openly, at the same time, we are not supposed to change the flag [in Taiwan]," Wu said.

Wu conceded that the referendum "has no practical value," because in any UN vote, "Taiwan is certainly going to be defeated," since more than 140 UN member countries recognize Beijing.

"But for Taiwan policy makers, it is something that we must do, because we face an entirely different phenomenon on the international stage, because the Chinese government has been suppressing Taiwan's international participation to such a degree that you won't believe it," Wu told an audience of more than 100 academics, government officials, former officials and Taiwan specialists.

"What China has been doing is to subject Taiwan to the `one China' principle, where Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China. And, if we don't try to do something to show the international community that Taiwan is not under China's jurisdiction, no one else will," Wu said.

"By applying for membership in the UN under the name `Taiwan' is the only visible way," he said.

The event was sponsored by the Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Georgetown University.
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