Taipei, Sept. 14 (CNA) As Taiwan's new strategy in its bid for U.N. membership will inevitably be opposed by China and the United States, new thinking is required to create a mutually beneficial situation for Taiwan, China and the U.S., an academic said in a conference Friday.
"If Washington elects to adopt some new thinking, while simultaneously drawing upon past U.N. actions, it might be able to cobble together a `win-win-win' situation for all parties involved in this dispute... one or more other countries (excluding the U.S.) should introduce a resolution to support Taipei's participation as an `observer' under the innocuous name `Chinese Taipei', " said Dennis Hickey, a professor at Missouri State University.
Chinese Taipei is the same name Taiwan now employs to participate in international affairs, Hickey said in the Taipei conference concerning Taiwan's application for U.N. membership.
By so doing, Hickey said, President Chen Shui-bian would be able to claim that he succeeded where others failed. The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) would be able to brag that its "flexible" approach had succeeded. China would win by demonstrating its new approach to world politics and Washington could express pleasant surprise at the innovative resolution and support it.
In 1954, the U.S. persuaded New Zealand to introduce a resolution into the U.N. that would effectively neutralize the Taiwan Strait in order to resolve an escalating crisis. The U.S. eventually abandoned the idea but the approach was innovative, Hickey said.
Jordan Paust, a political professor at the University of Houston, noted that both human rights and the related precept of self-determination of peoples are enshrined in the U.N. Charter.
Taiwan's U.N. bid might ultimately be subject to a Chinese veto in the Security Council. However, China cannot lawfully act to directly deny self-determination and human rights of the Taiwanese people, Paust said.