Taiwanese official berates U.N. policy

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GENEVA -- A Taiwanese Cabinet minister, posing as a technical adviser to a nongovernmental organization, slipped into a U.N.-sponsored conference this week, where he publicly challenged a policy of excluding Taiwan from the United Nations for more than 30 years.

Tsay Ching-Yen, a Taiwanese Cabinet minister without portfolio, led a delegation of more than 50 at a Monday session of the Global E-Business Forum, which is sponsored by the 55-nation U.N. Economic Commission for Europe.

At the meeting, which involved hundreds of participants, including U.S. officials, Mr. Tsay publicly chastised China for its policy of blocking Taiwanese participation in numerous international organizations, including the United Nations.

Mr. Tsay did not identify himself as a member of Taiwan's government.

Following the event, Taiwan's representative office in Paris issued a statement saying: "This forum has established a successful model for Taiwan's participation in United Nations parallel events."

A Chinese official told The Washington Times in Geneva that "he was looking into the matter."

The United Nations expelled the Republic of China (Taiwan) in 1971, when it formally recognized the communist government in Beijing.

China considers Taiwan a rebel province and has managed to exclude the island from international organizations for which statehood is a requirement.

Some diplomats here characterized Monday's event and Taiwan's subsequent statement as part of a calculated strategy to raise the stakes with China.