U.N.: Slamming the Door on Taiwan

An illustration of the cold shoulder treatment happened recently as the United Nations, under direct orders from Secretary-General Kofi Annan, refused to let the director-general of Taiwan's economic office in New York City brief reporters on Taipei's response to the SARS crisis.

Andrew Li-Yan Hsia was due to meet reporters mid-morning in the U.N. correspondents press club inside the high-rise Secretariat office building. His briefing had been widely promoted throughout the U.N. for the past several days. The U.N. Correspondents Association claimed it had U.N. approval when the offer to Hsia was made to speak with reporters.

According to UNCA president Tony Jenkins, Annan apparently changed his mind on Thursday night under pressure from China's U.N. mission. "We feel it is a sad day when the U.N. kow-tows to this sort of pressure," explained Jenkins.

Annan, through his spokesman Fred Eckhard, said he had originally decided to let the briefing go forward, despite possible protests by the Chinese-U.N. mission.

China is one of the five permanent U.N. members along with the U.S., U.K., France and Russia. Beijing assumed its seat in 1971, when Taiwan was expelled by the General Assembly.

Since that time, the People's Republic of China has been successful in pressuring three secretaries-general to keep Taiwanese officials and mainland dissidents from gaining entry to the world body's headquarters.

In 1994, Boutros Boutros-Ghali ordered his security officers to bolt the door to the U.N. press club shut. He then posted an armed officer at the entrance to prevent anyone from gaining access. News photographers who recorded the incident were confronted by Ghali's press secretary Joe Sills. Sills demanded the film from the photographers or their U.N. press credentials.

What so antagonized the Chinese-U.N. mission at that time was a scheduled briefing by one of the dissidents from the Tienanmin Square massacre. The dissident was then forced to brief reporters on the street, where he snarled traffic along Manhattan's First Avenue.

On that occasion, Ghali defended the action by calling the U.N. "a house of diplomacy," he added that the dissident's presence "would have been disruptive."

In explaining Annan's recent reversal, spokesman Fred Eckhard explained that the U.N. has a firm "one China policy."

That policy seems to bar anyone not in favor with Beijing.

UNCA President Jenkins told reporters that "the government of the People's Republic of China is the only government that has chosen to interfere with our right to speak with whomever we please." Jenkins added that representatives of Sinn Fein, the Taliban and Chechen rebels had all been granted access to the U.N. in recent years.

Dissidents from Iraq, Iran and even Hamas have also been given free access to the New York headquarters.

In 1995, Beijing seriously considered punitive action against Haiti when it became known that Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been paid by Taiwan to lobby for U.N. membership.