Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Wang
Guangya expressed China's firm opposition to the request by
several countries to consider the "Taiwan participation in the UN"
issue at the upcoming session of the General Assembly in
September.
Wang branded the requests "a gross encroachment on China's
internal affairs."
In a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on
Monday, Wang said that the UN is an intergovernmental organization
composed of sovereign states. As a part of China, Taiwan is not
eligible to participate in the UN or any of its specialized
agencies.
Chad and a few other countries had addressed two letters to
Annan, requesting that the issue of "Taiwan participation in the
United Nations" be considered at the upcoming session of the
General Assembly. They also requested the consideration of the
"proactive role of the United Nations in maintaining peace in the
Taiwan Straits."
Criticizing such a move as a "brazen violation" of the purposes
and principles of the UN Charter and in defiance of the General
Assembly's Resolution 2758, Wang said the Chinese government and
people strongly condemn and oppose such a gross encroachment on
China's internal affairs.
"Taiwan is a part of China's territory and it has never been a
country. There is only one China in the world, and China's
sovereignty and territorial integrity brook no division," Wang said
in the letter.
Although reunification has yet to be realized between the two
sides of the Taiwan Straits, the "one China" policy has not
changed, Wang added, saying it is also the principle that the UN
has consistently adhered to.
In 1971, the UN General Assembly's 26th session adopted, by an
overwhelming majority, Resolution 2758, which stipulated
unequivocally that representatives of the government of the
People's Republic of China are the only legitimate representatives
of China to the UN.
Since 1993, the general committees of successive sessions of the
General Assembly have all declined to include "Taiwan's
participation in the UN" on the General Assembly's agenda.
Wang said that in recent years, significant and complex changes
have taken place in Taiwan, where the "Taiwan independence"
secessionists have intensified their activities, threatening the
peaceful and stable development of cross-Straits relations. "This
has increasingly become the biggest obstacle to the growth of
cross-Straits relations as well as the biggest immediate threat to
peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits," he said.
(China Daily August 17, 2005)