Word: membership
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...Over the past seven years in office, President Chen Shui-bian has pushed an agenda focused on a sovereign Taiwan independent of Beijing, which considers the territory an inseparable part of China. But Chen's latest political gambit, a public referendum next year on the island's bid for membership in the United Nations, has done more than elicit sharp criticism and veiled threats from China. It's also caused frictions with its main military defender, the United States...
...late August, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte declared Chen's proposal "a mistake." The State Department has regularly said the U.S. opposes Taiwan's membership in international organizations that require statehood, including the United Nations and the World Health Organization. Negroponte called the vote a step towards "a declaration of independence," urging Taiwan's leaders to "behave in a responsible manner." The referendum, scheduled to take place alongside presidential elections in March, will ask voters whether the island should join the U.N. under the name Taiwan. It's a provocative moniker: unlike previous applications under its official name...
...request for U.N. admission by Taiwan is largely symbolic. As a member of the Security Council, China can veto any application, and Taiwan has tried - and failed - to regain membership more than a dozen times since being expelled in 1971, when the U.N. granted China's seat to Beijing. American censure, therefore, comes mostly out of a desire to avoid upsetting what has always been a tenuous peace between the mainland and Taiwan. In July, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang warned the proposed vote could "have a grave impact on cross-Straits relations and seriously endanger peace and stability...
...only thing they can do is portray the opposition as Beijing's collaborator." Chao says a similar strategy was key to the DPP's victory in the 2004 elections, which included Taiwan's first referendum. This time around, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) has proposed its own referendum on U.N. membership to compete on the same ballot as the DPP's, although it leaves open the question of whether to use a less contentious name - such as Chinese Taipei, the name its athletes use when competing in the Olympics. KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou held...
Many people have opined on a Slate article, penned by The Crimson’s own Lucy M. Caldwell ’09, that exposed Caroline R. Giuliani ’11’s membership in a Barack Obama Facebook group. Bloggers and anonymous commenters have debated the nature of Facebook, politicians’ families’ right to privacy, and other topics of legitimate discussion. But in the midst of this, a number of people viciously mocked Caldwell for lisping during a television interview. While some moralists among these bloggers deemed many of the jabs against Caldwell...