Taiwan is a 'sovereign state': foreign minister
TAIPEI (AFP) — Taiwan's foreign minister James Huang said Friday the island is "absolutely an independent sovereign state" after the White House described its plan for a referendum on UN membership as "perplexing."
"Taiwan is absolutely an independent, sovereign nation ... it ranked the 16th largest in terms of trade," Huang told AFP.
"The comment made by foreign government officials cannot change the fact of Taiwan's statehood and such comment is irrelevant," he said.
Dennis Wilder, White House National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs, said Thursday that Taiwan's planned referendum on joining the UN was "perplexing" and would add unnecessary tension to regional relations.
"Membership in the United Nations requires statehood. Taiwan, or the Republic of China, is not at this point a state in the international community," Wilder said.
"So we find the attempts by the DPP (Democratic Progressive) Party in Taiwan to call for a referendum of this subject a little bit perplexing as to why this would be useful, given the fact that Taiwan is not going to be able to join the United Nations under current circumstances."
Taiwan, under its official name the Republic of China, lost its UN seat to China in 1971.
Its past efforts to rejoin have been repeatedly blocked by Beijing, which regards Taiwan as part of China's territory awaiting reunification. They split after a civil war in 1949.
