Taiwan won’t give in to Beijing as it seeks UN membership, island’s President Tsai Ing-wen says
- Just days after US agrees US$2.2 billion arms deal, leader of self-ruled island hosts unprecedented reception for diplomatic allies at de facto embassy in New York
- Taipei ‘will never succumb to any threats, now or in the future’, she says
Taiwan will not bend to pressure from Beijing to give up its ambition of joining the United Nations, the island’s President Tsai Ing-wen told a group of UN permanent representatives at an unprecedented high-profile reception at its de facto embassy in New York on Thursday.
The event, at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, was attended by 17 officials, most of them envoys from nations with which Taiwan still has diplomatic ties, including Paraguay, Belize, Nauru, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
It was also the first of its kind to be open to the media, as Taiwan’s leaders have been prohibited from making public appearances during transit stops in the US since Washington switched its diplomatic allegiance to Beijing from Taipei in 1979.
“Taiwan will never succumb to any threats [from Beijing], now or in the future,” the presidential office quoted Tsai as saying. “Any obstacles will only strengthen Taiwan’s resolution to join the international community.”
Tsai arrived in New York on Thursday at the start of a 12-day tour of the region and was expected to spend two days in the city before heading to the Caribbean nations of Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and St Lucia. She is also set to spend two nights in Denver, Colorado on her return journey.