Monday, August 7 2006 19:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Taipei: Taiwan plans to rejoin the United Nations in the name of 'Taiwan' instead of the 'Republic of China (ROC)', a move which could further strain Taiwan-China ties, a media report said Monday.

After failing in its UN bid for 13 years, President Chen Shui-bian recently approved a government plan to seek to rejoin the UN in the name of 'Taiwan' instead of Taiwan's formal title 'ROC', the Liberty Times quoted an unnamed official as saying.

Under the plan, the Taiwan government will directly apply to rejoin the UN instead of having Taiwan's diplomatic allies asking the UN to consider Taiwan's participation in the UN.

President Chen will write a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to express the wish of Taiwan's 23 million people to join the UN and appeal for support, the daily said. The 61st UN General Assembly will open Sep 12.

But some Taiwan scholars warned that applying to rejoin the UN is not only futile, but also dangerous.

"It is futile because China and the US are opposed to Taiwan's rejoining the UN. Taiwan has tried for 13 years and has never succeeded," said Chen Yu-chun, director of the Chinese Culture University's Graduate Institute of American Studies.

"As both China and the US have warned Taiwan against seeking independence, Taiwan's applying to rejoin the UN in the name of Taiwan will the two countries to put pressure on Taiwan and bring new tension to cross-Strait ties," he said.

When the Chinese nationalist government, or the Republic of China (ROC) government, lost the Chinese civil War in 1949, it fled to Taiwan to set up its government-in-exile but continued to hold China's seat in the UN.

In 1971, the UN expelled the ROC government to accept Communist China (People's Republic of China) as the legitimate representative of China.

In 1993, Taiwan launched an international campaign to rejoin the UN as an observer under the name of ROC. China has blasted Taiwan's UN bid as Taipei's scheme to internationalise the 'Taiwan issue' and to pave the way for Taiwan's formally declaring independence from China. China has warned that if Taipei declares independence or seeks de facto independence by changing Taiwan's official name, national anthem or constitution, Beijing would use force to recover Taiwan.

The US, Taiwan's main arms supplier and mediator in Taipei-Beijing ties, has also warned Taiwan not to unilaterally change the status quo.