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“TAIWAN DESERVES A U.N. SEAT” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E2279 on Dec. 4, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TAIWAN DESERVES A U.N. SEAT
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HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON
of new york
in the house of representatives
Monday, December 4, 1995
Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, A.M. Rosenthal has written a superb article on the silly situation that now exists in which the United Nations recognizes North Korea but not Taiwan. I have introduced bipartisan legislation, House Concurrent Resolution 63, to express the sense of congress that this outrage ought to be reversed. I ask for cosponsors of the legislation and insert the Rosenthal article for the Record.
The Blockades of Taiwan
(By A.M. Rosenthal)
Taipei, Taiwan.--They come almost every day now--the military threats to this island country from Communist Government in Beijing.
Chinese Army commanders order repeated amphibious landings at the mainland coast nearest the island--the precise kind of operation that would be needed to invade Taiwan--and
``tests'' of missiles in the straits dividing China and the island. In recent days there has been a series of leaked reports that Beijing is considering a naval blockade of Taiwan.
Nobody knows whether the threats are meant only to frighten all Taiwanese into abandoning any thought of independence, however distant, or whether Beijing is readying its people and the world for an attack. If it does take place it is likely to be in the spring of 1996 before or after Taiwan holds its first direct presidential election.
But the evidence is that the military command is beginning to operate and plan independently of the civilian leadership in the Politburo.
This much seems clear from here: The West is operating on the assumption that if it says and does nothing, why, any dangers will vanish in a merciful blip.
The studious silence arises from the fundamental China policy of the West: Rock no Chinese boat lest Beijing throw easy Western access to the Chinese market overboard.
The West manages to maintain its silence because a Chinese blockade of Taiwan already exists: the political and diplomatic blockade created by Beijing after it took over the China seat in the U.N. in 1971.
The government of Taiwan was not only ousted from the U.N. but from the international community. Taiwan, one of the largest trading nations in the world, has been cut off from normal diplomatic and political relations with almost the whole world.
The U.S. maintains an ``institute'' in Taipei headed by a
``director.'' But no flag is flown outdoors to save Beijing a fit. In Washington, representatives of Taiwan cannot sully the State department or White House by their presence. So far, separate drinking fountains for Taiwanese representatives have not been set up.
Taiwan is not only barred from the U.N. but from all its many specialized agencies, including those supposed to deal with such universal subjects as health and agriculture--say, AIDS or starvation.
The blockade is so obsessively enforced that it even excludes aid to refugees. Last year the U.N. appealed for funds for Rwandan refugees, among the most suffering of God's human creatures. Taiwan offered $2 million; refused. The Taiwanese did manage to get their gift accepted--by channeling it through an American committee for Unicef.
Correspondents from Taiwan are not permitted to enter the U.N. As a former reporter at the U.N., in its early days, I have thought of slipping my pass to a correspondent from Taiwan, to annoy U.N. authorities, but I decided it wouldn't work.
Before Beijing commanded the U.N., correspondents from nonmember peoples were allowed in. I learned more about North Africa and Indonesia from independence-movement reporters than I ever did from the colonial French or Dutch.
North Korea and South Korea are members and so were East and West Germany. The Palestine Liberation Organization was given representation at the General Assembly with only a vote lacking.
But when China decided that any dreams of independence, sovereignty or even dignity that Taiwan might harbor were too dangerous to tolerate, this special apartheid was created for the island. The U.S. and most other U.N. members meekly kissed Beijing's iron slipper.
That means Taiwan cannot use the U.N. or any normal diplomatic channel to raise an alarm that had to be officially heard about the open military threats from Beijing. If any other country had threatened another so blatantly the case would immediately have been on the U.N. agenda.
Nor of course most U.N. members, including the U.S., would be paralyzed with economic terror at the very idea of proposing that Taiwan as well as China be represented at the U.N. But perhaps Washington, London, Paris and Tokyo will dredge up enough courage to increase their own diplomatic contacts with Taiwan as a warning to China. Perhaps.
Until now the Chinese diplomatic blockade and Western submission to it have been merely disgusting. Now they are getting dangerous.
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