(Draft)

Ambassador John D. Negroponte
Permanent Representative of the United States

 To the United Nations

November 16, 2003

Dear Ambassador Negroponte:

We, the representatives of the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce in North America, respectfully ask you to support Taiwan’s membership in the United Nations. Your action will correct historic injustices, help achieve the UN’s purposes, and implement Secretary General Kofi Annan’s efforts to reform the UN.

Egregious injustices have been perpetrated against Taiwan and its 23 million people. The people of Taiwan have long been denied their right of self-determination, as guaranteed by the UN charter and by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Art. 1).

Taiwan, a vibrant democracy, has been unjustly excluded from the UN

1. despite its long existence as a de jure and de facto sovereign independent state (23 million permanent residents and a clearly defined territory – both larger than 40% of UN member states; a sovereign government; and the ability to enter relations with other states – satisfying the recognition requirements of the 1933 Convention on Rights and Duties of States); and
2. despite meeting the two UN membership qualifications: (a) a peace-loving state; (b) the ability, as the world’s 17^th largest economy and the 3^rd largest maker of IT products and the holder of nearly $200 billion in foreign exchange reserves, to carry out UN obligations (UN Charter Art. 4).

It is not a glaring injustice and a violation of the principles of the UN that Tuvalu, a tiny state of atolls in the South Pacific, is a UN member but Taiwan, a much larger and richer state, is shut out?

The principle cause of the injustices against Taiwan has been the People’s Republic of China, which

1. has claimed Taiwan as a part of China despite the fact that Japan, by the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty only “renounced all right, title and claim to Taiwan and the Peascadores,” but left Taiwan’s international legal status undetermined; and despite the fact that various Declarations, such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1972 Shanghai Declaration, were made without any consultations with, let alone the assent of, the people of Taiwan;
2. has threatened Taiwan military in violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter;
3. and has repeatedly vetoed Taiwan’s efforts to be readmitted into the UN

We strongly urge you:

1. to assist the people of Taiwan to exercise their right of self-determinations;
2. to mobilize the UN General Assembly and pressure the PRC

(a)   to respect the wish of the people of Taiwan to determine their own future;

(b)   to cease its military menace, including over 450 short-range ballistic missiles targeting the island, threatening the peace, security, and stability of Asia;

(c)   and not to veto Taiwan’s UN membership application when it is taken up by the Security Council;

3.      and to actively support Taiwan’s membership in the UN, in the WHO, and in other international organizations – all in Taiwan’s real name, not as the Republic of China.

Your action will correct long historic injustices, help achieve the UN’s lofty purposes, and assist Kofi Annan’s reform efforts to make the UN become a more universal and effective world organization.

With best wishes,


Very sincerely,


The Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce in North America