Will Ma Push for Taiwan's Return to the UN?

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The United Nations (UN) will hold an assembly on September 15 at the UN Headquarters in New York. On September 12, former Taiwan Minister of National Defense Cai Ming-xian led a propaganda team for promoting Taiwan to join the UN and protested on the square, hoping to arouse international attention of Taiwan’s participation right in the UN.

Before the 2008 presidential election, President Ma Ying-jeou had held a parade named, “Return to UN,” and called for the return to the UN on behalf of the Republic of China. This is the last year for Ma to deal with the proposal to enter the UN during his term of office. But according to sources from the Ministry of National Defense, Ma’s government will do nothing but maintain the same policy of the past seven years, and the proposal regarding returning to the UN will not be promoted.

CNA reports, the blessing event for Taiwan’s returning to the UN was held on the afternoon of September 12 the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, drawing 200 overseas Taiwanese and even the UN ambassador of our ally, Haiti. People waved banners reading, “UN for Taiwan” and chanted, “The UN needs Taiwan, and Taiwan needs the UN” to appeal to the UN to face the international participation right of Taiwan. Flyers were given out to the Chinese tourists passing by the square.

Cai emphasizes, over 90 percent of the Taiwanese people hope to join the UN. On the other hand, the UN should not exclude Taiwan based on the principle of universality. Cai hopes the upcoming meeting of Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama will not sacrifice the interests of Taiwan and the US should not accept China’s One China Principle.

Lai Hung-dian, the chairman of the Committee for Admission of Taiwan to the United Nations (CATUN), has been promoting this proposal for 23 years. Lai says with mixed feelings that the overseas activists who had joined the “UN for Taiwan” campaign are now over 70 years old. They want to have successors and let the world face the Taiwanese’s hopes to join the UN.

Voice of America reports, Li Min-zhen, one of the participants of the Sunflower Movement and also one of the members of the Taiwan UN Alliance propaganda team, says the middle generation lacks consciousness of Taiwan, but participants of the Sunflower Movement are already different. “Taiwan’s young generation knows clearly how much they would pay for over-reliance on China.”

Pu Lin, a member of Taiwan independence group, Restoration of Taiwan Social Justice, says they hope Taiwan can not only be de-facto independent but to be de jure independent from the Republic of China so that we can get rid of the control of PRC. This will be the only way for us to enter the UN. Through enabling Taiwan to become a real independent sovereignty, we can meet the conditions of entering the UN.

Liberty Times reports, Ma held the parade named, “Return to UN,” before the 2008 presidential election. Ma calls to return to the UN on behalf of the Republic of China and claims this is the most effective solution to maintain Taiwan’s dignity and international status without affecting national friendships.

But after Ma took office, he started to promote policies of diplomatic truce and never proposed to return to the UN ever since. Ma only asks our allies to speak up for our actual participation in international activities, such as attending certain UN organizations like UNFCCC or ICAO as observers, at the General Assembly. But so far, Taiwan has not become observers in these international organizations.

Translated by June
Edited by Olivia Yang

Sources:

• CNA
• Voice of America
• Liberty Times