China said Wednesday that the attempt by a few countries to raise the issue of "Taiwan's participation in the UN" constitutes a violation of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and a relevant General Assembly resolution.
In his statement at the General Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, Chinese Permanent Representative Wang Yingfan said that it is an indisputable objective reality and legal fact widely recognized by the international community that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan has been an inseparable part of China's territory since antiquity.
Wang said that the historic Resolution 2758, adopted by the 26th session of the UN assembly in 1971, has solved once and for all, in political, legal and procedural terms, the issue of China's representation at the world inter-governmental organization.
As of the day when the legitimate rights of the People's Republic of China were restored at the UN, "the Government of the People's Republic of China has rightfully represented all Chinese, including our compatriots in Taiwan, in the United Nations and all organizations related to it," he said, adding that this has fully safeguarded the principle of universality of the world body.
Thus, he stressed, there is simply no such issue as the so-called "Taiwan's representation in the United Nations."
Wang said that as part of China, Taiwan is already covered in China's representation at the UN and is thus not eligible to participate on its own, in any other name or under any pretext, in the work or activities of the UN or its specialized agencies.
"The Chinese government has consistently maintained its position that peaceful reunification of the motherland should be realized through equal dialogue between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits on the basis of the One China Principle," he said.
However, the Taiwan authorities countered the efforts of peaceful reunification by setting up obstacles to the economic, trade, cultural and personnel exchanges between the two sides, he said.
"Chen Shui-bien has even gone so far as to publicly state recently that there is one country on each side," Wang said, stressing that the "open provocation against the One China Principle" will not only seriously damage the relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits, but also undermine the stability and peace in the Asia-Pacific region.
(China Daily September 12, 2002)
