Taiwan president urges China to let NGOs have place on world stage

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Taipei - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou on Friday urged China to allow more of the island's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) take part in international events. Speaking at an international seminar on NGOs, Ma said that since his inauguration in 2008, he has been stressing mutual respect and cooperation between Taipei and Beijing and China has permitted Taiwan to join some international organizations, such as allowing it to attend the World Health Assembly.

"However, China still blocks Taiwan NGOs' participation in international activities, so I appeal to China to ... let the harmonious atmosphere extend to unofficial organizations, so that Taiwan's civic groups can make greater contributions to the international community," he said at the meeting in Taipei County.

Ma did not cite specific cases of China blocking NGO participation in international events, but several Taiwan NGOs complained that although they were allowed to attend the ongoing UN-sponsored conference on climate change in Copenhagen, the organizer, apparently under pressure from Beijing, listed them as organizations from China.