Taiwan: Membership Application Rebuffed
China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya, who held the rotating presidency of the Security Council in July, has ignored and returned a second letter sent by
Below is an article published by Bangkok Post
A second letter sent by
Chen's "petty trick of sending a second letter is an extremely grave separatist move aimed at Taiwan independence and has once again exposed himself as a downright international troublemaker," China's state media Xinhua News Agency quoted Wang as saying.
Ban's spokesperson, Marie Okabe, said the second letter was returned to its senders and would likely elicit no response from the UN.
"I cannot confirm at this point whether an official response has gone back yet, but our position has not changed," she said.
Chen's first letter on July 20 requesting UN membership for Taiwan's 23 million people was ignored by Ban, but his legal counsel wrote back to say the UN is abiding by the so-called one-China policy, by which the UN General Assembly recognizes China as the only representative in the international organization.
Chen sent a second letter Friday [27 July 2007], which like the previous one, was endorsed by ambassadors whose countries are allied with
Both letters were sent to Ban and Guangya as president of the Security Council.
Okabe acknowledged that the decision on UN membership belongs to the Security Council and General Assembly and is not Ban's, but said the assembly's decision to expel
"That's correct, it's up to the member states to decide on the membership of the UN," Okabe said. But "in keeping with Resolution 2758 of the General Assembly, it (the last letter) could not be received, and was returned by the legal office."
Resolution 2758 in 1971 recognised the People's Republic of
The island nation has tried since 1993 to break out of its international isolation by requesting UN membership as the Republic of China on
In his first letter, Chen said, "The absence of