Again, U.N. Shuns Taiwan

For the 11th year in a row, Taiwan failed in its bid to win recognition by the United Nations when the General Assembly rejected an attempt by 17 supporters of Taiwan to put the issue on the U.N. agenda.

"The question of Taiwan will not come up in the General Assembly," said Michele Montas, spokeswoman for the 191-member General Assembly, after daylong deliberations Wednesday marked by China's stiff resistance.

Taiwan, which lost its seat at the United Nations to communist China in 1971, has tried for 11 years to get the General Assembly session to list the question of its readmission on the agenda.

The United Nations accepts the communist government in Beijing as the sole legitimate ruler of China. Beijing considers the island a part of China.

The United States recognizes Beijing as the only government of China, but its relations with Taiwan have improved markedly under the Bush administration. U.S. policy has been to keep Taiwan's military preparedness in direct proportion to the perceived threat from China, often angering its communist government.

"Taiwan is the only country in the world that remains excluded from the United Nations," said a statement by the countries backing it. These were mostly small nations in Africa and the Caribbean region, which are among the 26 countries that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

"No sovereign state in the world would allow one of its provinces or regions to participate in the United Nations, an organization whose membership requires statehood," China's Ambassador Wang Guangya told the General Committee.

"There is but one China in the world, both the mainland and Taiwan are part of that one and same China," he said.

In Taiwan's capital, Taipei, the Foreign Ministry criticized China's actions.

"Beijing still held on to its rigid thinking, mistakenly claiming it already represents Taiwan in the United Nations and making a great effort to disrupt our UN bid," said Tung Kuo-you, the ministry's head of international organizations.