SINCE early this year, Taiwanese authorities have set into motion a new escalation of actions aimed at separating Taiwan from the rest of the territory of the People’s Republic of China, against the interests of its own people and ignoring the will of the international community.

Taiwanese authorities are now trying to organize a so-called “referendum on the island’s entry into the UN under the name of Taiwan,” and to submit a resolution on the matter to that organization. This is a flagrant violation of previous decisions of the United Nations General Assembly, which in its Resolution 2758 (XXVI), passed on October 25, 1971, in the framework of its 26th session, recognized the People’s Republic of China as the only representative of the Chinese people and expelled from the UN the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek, who up until then had usurped the position that legitimately belonged to the People’s Republic.

In fact, this past July 23, the secretary general of the United Nations announced that his Office of Legal Affairs had refused to receive a letter from Taiwanese authorities requesting entry into the United Nations under the name of Taiwan. The UN secretary adduced, rightly, that UN policy is dictated by the abovementioned General Assembly Resolution 2758 (XXVI), which recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the only representative of the Chinese people. It is very significant that the head of that island’s authorities, Chen Shui Bian, chose the Press Club in the U.S. capital as the stage for announcing, via a videoconference held this past May 29, that he would dedicate the rest of his mandate to this goal.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, in line with the Cuban Revolution’s unwaveringly principled position on this matter, reiterates its firmest opposition to any type of action aimed at dividing China’s territory; it vigorously rejects the illegitimate referendum on Taiwan’s entry into the UN, as well as any other attempt by those authorities to enter that international organization.

Taiwan’s authorities should recall the recent defeat they suffered in the World Health Organization, an authentic and unequivocal expression of the will of the overwhelming majority of the world’s governments and nations, which, like Cuba, recognizes only one China, one nation indivisible, and Taiwan as part of its territory. This is a principle essential to maintaining peace and the preservation of international order. Any action in the opposite direction is destined to fail.

Havana, August 8, 2007