Taiwan to hold referendum on joining UN despite US opposition

Jun 19, 2007, 14:59 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan said on Tuesday it would go ahead with holding a referendum on joining the United Nations under the name of 'Taiwan,' despite opposition from the United States.

'Holding the referendum has won support from a majority of Taiwanese. It does not violate President Chen Shui-bian's promises (of not seeking independence) and does not concern changing the status quo of Taiwan,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Chien-yeh told reporters.

'Taiwan is a democracy, so our administration must respect the voice of the people ... But we will continue to exchange ideas with the US,' he said.

Wang was reacting to a US State Department official's warning on Monday that Taiwan should cancel plans to hold the referendum because it would raise tension across the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan press quoted the unnamed official as saying that the US, which holds a 'one China' policy, was opposed to Taiwan's joining international organizations, including the UN, whose membership is open to sovereign countries.

Holding this referendum was not helping Taiwan-US relations and was tantamount to altering Taiwan's status quo, the official said, adding that the US urged Chen to cancel the referendum.

Chen told a visiting US delegation on Monday that Taiwan wanted to rejoin the UN under the name of 'Taiwan' and was planning to hold a referendum on it alongside its presidential election in March 2008.

He insisted the move did not mean Taiwan wanted to change its official title from the Republic of China (ROC) to 'Taiwan.' But he did not explain how the UN could consider Taiwan's application for membership as 'Taiwan,' if it was not its official name.

The move is sensitive to China, because China sees Taiwan as its breakaway province and has warned that it will recover Taiwan by force if Taipei seeks independence, either directly or indirectly, for instance by changing its title or revising its constitution.

Taiwan and China split at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, but Taiwan continued to hold China's seat in the UN until 1971, when the UN expelled Taipei to accept Beijing as the legitimate capital of China.

In 1993 Taiwan launched an international campaign to rejoin the UN, but its efforts have failed in the past because the Taiwan issue was considered resolved in 1971 when the UN passed Resolution 2758 on restoring the legitimate status of China in the UN.

To improve its chances of joining the UN, some scholars have suggested that Taiwan apply to join the UN as a new country, called Taiwan. Chen has said repeatedly that Taiwan's application to join the UN under the name of 'Taiwan' did not amount to changing Taiwan's title.