The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday extended its gratitude to 25 countries for their efforts to support Taiwan's membership in the United Nations.
During the two week UN General Assembly debate session that ended on Saturday, the 25 countries -- most of whom are Taiwan's diplomatic allies -- spoke out in favor of the island's membership in the international body.
The allies include: Belize, Burkina Faso, Chad, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gambia, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, Malawi, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, the Solomon Islands, Swaziland, Macedonia, the Czech Republic and Papua New Guinea.
PNG withdrew its short-lived diplomatic recognition of the island after its new prime minister Sir Mekere Morauta came into power in July.
Morauta claimed that the ex-prime minister Bill Skate failed to follow "proper procedures" in establishing ties with the island, and the joint communique sealing ties was invalid.
Despite this, the foreign ministry still counts the South Pacific state as one of Taiwan's 29 allies.
In the same statement, the ministry lashed out at China for meddling in the delivery of international relief efforts to the earthquake torn island -- where Beijing insisted the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to seek its `permission' before sending a relief mission to Taiwan.
China also delayed the arrival of a Russian rescue team by 12 hours by refusing its aircraft permission to pass through Chinese air space.
Such behavior was "in complete defiance of international humanitarian relief principles," the ministry's statement said.
"It [China's behavior] just demonstrates how absurd and unreasonable it is to exclude Taiwan from the UN," it continued.
China's Foreign Ministry also offered thanks to the nations that sent rescue crews and aid to the island.
The statement condemns such action as part of China's strategy of "deliberately skewing the relationship between the two sides, spreading its propaganda internationally that it represents Taiwan and manufacturing the fallacy of communist China as the central government and of us as a locality."
Beijing's response to the quake was overwhelmingly perceived by Taiwanese as hostile. In a public opinion survey commissioned by The Journalist news weekly and Global cable television released yesterday, 73 percent of respondents said they had a negative attitude toward China.
Of those, 58 percent said they "strongly objected" to China's behavior during the quake.
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