Sep 10, 2004

Taiwan: Taiwanese expatriates in Japan call for support for Taiwan's U.N. bid


The overseas Taiwanese community in Japan sent a open letter Thursday to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi, asking them to help Taiwan's bid for U.N. membership
Untitled Document

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