VP Lu adamant about ‘legality’ of U.N. bid

“It’s alright that the United Nations follows a ‘one China’ policy. But just as there is one China, there is also one Taiwan, and we are applying to join the United Nations under the new name of Taiwan today,” Lu said during a speech at the 13th annual conference of the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce.

Legally impossible

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday it had proved legally impossible for his office to accept a U.N. membership application from Taiwan, despite careful consideration of the matter.

Ban told a news conference the issue would be discussed by U.N. members, following efforts by Taiwan’s allies to get it on the agenda of the new General Assembly annual session.

“This matter ... was very carefully considered by the secretariat, and in light of Resolution 2758 it was not legally possible to receive the purported application for membership,” said Ban.

The Marshall Islands has asked for Taiwan’s application to be considered by the new General Assembly session. A General Assembly committee is expected to review the proposal on Wednesday.

“I hope that, accordingly, this question will have to be discussed by the member states,” Ban said. The General Committee is expected to meet Wednesday to finalize the agenda of the session.

U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they expected, however, the committee would not recommend that Taiwan’s application be put on the Assembly’s agenda.

With China holding a veto in the 15-member Security Council and overwhelming support in the 192-member General Assembly, Taiwan officials said they know the U.N. bid will fail but insist their 23 million people have a right to U.N. representation.

Denying U.S. pressure

Foreign analysts said Taiwan’s planned referendum on United Nations membership may further damage its crucial ties to the United States, but President Chen Shui-bian will likely defy American pressure and see the proposal through.

Taiwan specialist Shelly Rigger of Davidson College in the U.S. state of North Carolina said Chen would continue to defy American pressure — even if it produced an American statement that the U.S. was opposed to Taiwanese independence.

Such a statement would be regarded as a personal slap in the face for Chen and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which is competing against the main opposition Nationalists in crucial legislative and presidential elections in the first quarter of 2008.

“To date, Washington has only said it does not support independence,” Rigger said. “I think the Bush Administration would prefer not to change policy in this way, but it is something the U.S. could do.”

Since the U.N. referendum was announced in May, Washington has taken a number of steps that appear to be aimed at punishing Chen for undertaking his initiative.

One was holding up the proposed sale of relatively advanced F-16 jet fighters to the Taiwanese air force, a step that Chen rebuked in a videoconference with a Washington think tank earlier this month.

Bracing for the worse

Ranking officials in the Presidential Office dismissed reports that Taiwan plans to take its case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague if its bid for membership in the United Nations is rejected again this year.

At present, Taipei is still evaluating all feasible options to push its bid for U.N. membership. “There is no such plan,” they said. “The matter will be discussed later.”

The officials were responding to reports in the China Times, a local daily, which said that the government has several contingency plans up its sleeve concerning the bid.

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