Taiwanese Americans took to the streets of New York Saturday to call attention to Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN, just two weeks before Pope Francis is expected to address the 70th UN General Assembly in his first trip as pontiff to the US.
“Every year, we’re gonna shout, we’re gonna fight and we’re gonna be heard,” Outreach for Taiwan co-founder Jenny Wang (汪采羿), one of the organizers, screamed through a microphone as more than 100 people, penned in by New York Police Department metal barricades along Seventh Avenue near Times Square, waved baby-blue “UN for Taiwan” flags.
For 24 years, Taiwanese in New York have staged rallies similar to the one held on Saturday, usually timing them to the start of each new general assembly. Unlike last year’s event, this year’s included a sidewalk march from Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, a park near the UN, to Seventh Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets.
Photo: Chris Fuchs
Chanting “keep Taiwan free,” among other slogans, marchers held aloft UN for Taiwan flags as well as small green-and-white ones, featuring a green image of the nation in the center, as they threaded their way through throngs of tourists and a motley mix of cartoon characters, like Spongebob and Mickey Mouse, who posed for photos in exchange for cash with sightseers visiting Times Square.
Those attending Saturday’s rally — including more than 20 members of the Taiwan-UN Alliance (臺灣聯合國協進會), led by former Defense Minister Michael Tsai (蔡明憲) — said that Taiwan should be allowed to rejoin the UN, which gave the country’s seat to China in 1971.
“Taiwan should really strive to head in this direction,” said Hsu Chin-feng (許青風), a member of the Taiwan-UN Alliance delegation, in Mandarin. “Taiwan can’t be an international orphan.”
Photo: Chris Fuchs
One of only three countries not in the UN, Taiwan has long faced stiff opposition from China in its attempts to join the intergovernmental body. Beijing has argued that Taiwan, which it views as a breakaway province, is not a sovereign nation.
That position doesn’t sit well with Wale Adefope, a Nigerian who was visiting New York on vacation and who just happened to pass by the rally with his son Goodness. The small blue flags were what caught his eye.
“When I saw ‘United Nations for Taiwan,’ it gladdened my heart,” Adefope said, adding that Taiwan and China should both have seats in the UN.
Saturday’s march comes two weeks before the pope embarks on a six-day tour of the US, stopping in New York on Sept. 24 and 25 to say mass at Madison Square Garden and to address the UN. Some of the groups that organized Saturday’s rally were also planning to hold a sit-in at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, near the UN, on the day the pope speaks.
Recognizing the Republic of China as the legitimate government of China, the Vatican, or Holy See, is one of only 23 nations that maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan. In years past, Beijing has protested when Taiwanese presidents have attended Vatican events — such as in 2013, when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was present for Francis’ inaugural mass — where they were seated with heads of states of countries in the UN.
For Adefope, Taiwan should be able to have its own identity and be free to govern as it chooses.
“Taiwan, even back home in Africa, is well-known,” Adefope said. “And I think it would be nice if China could let go.”
The breakwater stretches out to sea from the sprawling Kaohsiung port in southern Taiwan. Normally, it’s crowded with massive tankers ferrying liquefied natural gas from Qatar to be stored in the bulbous white tanks that dot the shoreline. These are not normal times, though, and not a single shipment from Qatar has docked at the Yongan terminal since early March after the Strait of Hormuz was shuttered. The suspension has provided a realistic preview of a potential Chinese blockade, a move that would throttle an economy anchored by the world’s most advanced and power-hungry semiconductor industry. It is a stark reminder of
May 11 to May 17 Traversing the southern slopes of the Yushan Range in 1931, Japanese naturalist Tadao Kano knew he was approaching the last swath of Taiwan still beyond colonial control. The “vast, unknown territory,” protected by the “fierce” Bunun headman Dahu Ali, was “filled with an utterly endless jungle that choked the mountains and valleys,” Kano wrote. He noted how the group had “refused to submit to the measures of our authorities and entrenched themselves deep in these mountains … living a free existence spent chasing deer in the morning and seeking serow in the evening,” even describing them as
The last couple of weeks spectators in Taiwan and abroad have been treated to a remarkable display of infighting in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over the supplementary defense budget. The party has split into two camps, one supporting an NT$800 billion special defense budget and one supporting an NT$380 billion budget with additional funding contingent on receiving letters of acceptance (LOA) from the US. Recent media reports have said that the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) is leaning toward the latter position. President William Lai (賴清德) has proposed NT$1.25 trillion for purchases of US arms and for development of domestic weapons
As a different column was being written, the big news dropped that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) announced that negotiations within his caucus, with legislative speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT, party Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chair Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) had produced a compromise special military budget proposal. On Thursday morning, prior to meeting with Cheng over a lunch of beef noodles, Lu reiterated her support for a budget of NT$800 or NT$900 billion — but refused to comment after the meeting. Right after Fu’s
RSS