China drops plan for UN vote on Taiwan's status (Roundup)

Sep 5, 2007, 10:13 GMT

Taipei - China, under pressure from the United States, has dropped a plan to initiate a United Nations vote affirming that Taiwan is part of China, a Taiwan newspaper said on Wednesday.

The China Times, in a dispatch from Washington DC, said China has canceled the plan for the UN vote. China now says that it is UN members' consensus that Taiwan is part of China, so there is no need for a vote.

In a nine-point clarification, the US told the UN that the assertion, 'Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China,' is not the consensus of the majority UN members, and is not the consistent policy of the US.

Washington has conveyed this stance to both the UN and Taipei, the mass-circulation Chinese-language paper said.

China originally planned to ask UN members to vote on the statement, 'Taiwan is part of China,' to block Taiwan's bid to join the UN.

Taiwan has been seeking to join the UN since 1993 but stepped up its campaign this year by applying to join the UN as a new country, called 'Taiwan,' with President Chen Shui-bian signing the application which was delivered to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Ban rejected Taipei's application, saying the Taiwan issue was solved when the UN passed Resolution 2758 in 1971 to expel the Republic of China (ROC) and accept the People's Republic of China (PRC).

The ROC government lost China to the Chinese Communists in 1949 - when it fled to Taiwan to set up its government-in-exile, still called the ROC - but continued to hold China's UN seat until 1971.

Taiwan launched a campaign to rejoin the UN under the name of ROC in 1993, but has failed each year due to opposition from China which claims Taiwan is part of China and the Taiwan issue was solved by Resolution 2758.

China is particularly worried this year because Taiwan is applying for UN membership as 'Taiwan,' which causes China to fear that Taiwan might change its name from ROC to Taiwan to seek formal independence from China.

Most of the 192 UN members recognize China and only 24 countries recognize Taiwan.

The Taiwan issue might be a main topic in the upcoming summit between US President George W Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao, held on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Sydney on Thursday.

But the Taiwanese government said Wednesday it has no plan to promote its UN membership issue during the summit period.

'We are not going to promote our UN bid and our planned referendum because APEC is an economic body,' government spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey said, adding Taiwan will focus on economic issues.

Stan Shih, founder of computer giant Acer Group, who will represent President Chen to attend the summit, said Wednesday he would not take the initiative in bringing up the issue.

'But if asked, I would reiterate the government stand that Taiwan is a sovereign independent country with every right to join the United Nations,' he said in a news conference in Taipei, a day before leaving for Sydney.

He said he would not avoid contacting the Chinese leader during the summit and would speak on behalf of Taiwan's interests in meeting Bush and other summit leaders.

Taiwan will be closely monitoring the Bush-Hu talks to see if there are changes in the US and China's policies towards Taiwan.