Taiwan: Taiwanese expatriates in Japan call for support for Taiwan's U.N. bid
Tokyo, Sept. 9 (CNA) The overseas Taiwanese community in Japan sent a open
letter Thursday to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, asking them to help Taiwan's bid for U.N.
membership.
The letter was issued after a symposium on related affairs for Taiwanese expatriates
residing in the areas of Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Nagoya and Hiroshima. In the
letter, they called on Annan and Koizumi to help resolve the issue of Taiwan's
representation based upon the principle of U.N. membership universality.
Taiwan is a democratic country that has had direct presidential elections
since eight years ago and has also made comendable economic achievements,
with its foreign exchange reserves and export value of IT products ranking
third in the world, the letter says. "Meanwhile, the Taiwan government
and people have spared no efforts to seek international support for the country's
bid to join the U.N. with a view to contributing to world peace, prosperity
and stability." Saying that joining the U.N. is a basic right of the
23 million people of Taiwan, the letter adds it is regrettable that the peace-
and democracy-loving country has not been admitted.
The Republic of China was a U.N. founding member, but has been shut out of
the world body since 1971, when the United Nations gave the China seat to
the People's Republic of China. Since 1993, the ROC's diplomatic allies have
asked the U.N. annually to consider the 23 million Taiwan people's representation
issue. The request, however, has consistently been quashed by the PRC, a U.N
Security Council permanent member.
Source: CNA