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China, Taiwan trade barbs over failed UN bid

Reuters

BEIJING/TAIPEI - China and Taiwan traded barbs on Tuesday over Taiwan's latest failed attempt to join the UN, as Beijing called the island's president "scum" and Taiwan said China couldn't face up to the fact of its sovereignty.

The United Nations on Monday rejected Taiwan's application to join the world body, citing Beijing's "one China" policy that says there is only one China and Taiwan is part of it.

Beijing has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and has vowed to bring the island back under mainland rule, by force if necessary.

"Scums of the nation who attempt to split the country cannot escape the punishment of history in the end," Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed official with China's Taiwan Affairs Office as saying.

"This has once again proved that (Taiwan President) Chen Shui-bian is an out and out plotter and saboteur who would not hesitate to sacrifice the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in Asia-Pacific."

Chen applied for membership of the organization under the name "Taiwan," a departure from Taipei's past practice of applying as "Republic of China," its official name.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council fired back that China was failing to face up to reality.

"China is attempting to use the international community to pressure Taiwan and that just shows that it doesn't dare to face the fact that Taiwan is sovereign and independent, and that the two sides don't belong to each other," the MAC said in a statement.

It added: "The government's determination to join the United Nation and the direction to respect the willingness of all the Taiwanese people will never change."

The UN rejection has become part of an annual ritual for Taiwan, which has seen its application for membership in the world body rejected for 15 consecutive times due to pressure from Beijing.

Taiwan has just 24 diplomatic allies -- mostly small, impoverished nations in the South Pacific, Africa and Latin America, compared to around 180 for economically booming China.

Taiwan's foreign ministry expressed regret at the UN move, saying the right to representation for the people of Taiwan had not been resolved, according to a report from Taiwan's Central News Agency.

China has kept Taiwan out of most world bodies that require statehood as a condition for membership, blocking its attempt to join the World Health Organization earlier this year.

Taiwan left the United Nations in 1972 when Communist China took over the seat from the Nationalist government that fled to the island after the civil war, and has been unrepresented in the body since then.

Chen's independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), in power since 2000, is also pursuing a referendum that would allow the island's residents to vote on whether it should pursue UN membership under the name Taiwan.

That campaign has drawn the ire of not only Beijing, but also the United States -- Taiwan's most important ally -- which has said it opposes moves by Taiwan that would unilaterally change the status quo between China and Taiwan.

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crooks

The UN is truly gutless, Taiwan is a seperate nation and if it wishes to join who should be allowed stop it?!

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astralis

crooks,

unfortunately, that argument would have had stronger weight if it wasn't for the fact that the ROC walked out of the UN.

but it doesn't surprise me a bit. it's not a matter of being gutless or not, it is simply a matter of national interest...and china outweighs taiwan.

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FibrillatorD

This is getting old.

Zeng

^^^
When Taiwan is under DDP governing, it is relatively easier for PRC to deal with. PRC wouldn’t need to make compromises toward DDP on the international stage as well as for the missile targeting Taiwan issue. But if KMT takes the government in the future election, it will bring some challenges for PRC to handle.

It is hard for PRC not to make compromises toward KMT but at the same time, I wonder how much room that PRC has for making the compromise without backing down from Taiwan’s independent issue. Missile targeting Taiwan issue may be solved with KMT, but the international recognition issue will be hard to solve.

I am sure that China today is making plans for the case that KMT gets elected. China has handled DDP since 2000. Now, some creative thinking is necessary for handling the relation with KMT especially on the international recognition issue and the issues of Taiwan’s joining the international organizations. Right now, Taiwan needs to use the name of “China Taipei” to attend some international organizations such as Olympics. May be PRC can use a name such as “China Beijing” in those international organizations to show China's sincerity. I hope that PRC and KMT can work out some compromises without violating the “One China policy".

If DDP gets elected again after some years of KMT governing and DDP still behaves the way it behaves now, PRC could just remove some of the compromises made toward KMT.

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wkllaw

It won't behave as it does now. The presidential candidate for them is more moderate and all the hype about independence amongst the DDP seems to have lessened, it hasn't lessened for Chen, but things are calming down amongst the people. They now care increasingly more about the economy.

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Zeng

I wish that too. But it is a little bit naive to believe that DPP will never be as extreme as it is now. It could become even more extreme if China or Taiwan experience some internal troubles.

Chen SB made promise that he will be moderate at the time when he was elected. If things went well for DPP, I think that he will not go this extreme. But things went wrong and he has to go extreme to appease the extreme groups to get base support. The same logic works for the future candidates.

"Wish for the best and prepare for the worst" is always a smarter choice.

wkllaw

You make a good point, however it seems that for the forseeable future, the people will be moderate. I don't know and won't guess how the future will be for the long-term, but the population has gone more moderate for now. Candidates might push for extremes, but the majority will still support the status quo for a while longer.

We can use this time of moderation and willingness to expand economic, cultural ties when Chen leaves to promote interdependence and like they say for Europe, "When we don't send money across the border, we send soldiers."

Rockrocks

I guess Taiwan is going down...
Chen Shui bian just want to make some points before his term is over.

tony6623

The UN is an internationa organization to solve problem, not to produce new problem.

BenRoethig

That is why it was originally created, but now it exists only to maintain the status quo.

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