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Taiwan rockers beat drum for UN membership bid
09/13/2007 7:17 PM, Reuters
Rockers from Taiwan took their
island's uphill struggle for U.N. membership to American arenas
this year as the first Asian extreme metal group on hard rock
icon Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest tour.
Goth-style rockers ChthoniC acknowledged that the
headbanging, expletive-laced music they served up in some 60
cities in North America over the past summer may not help
Taiwan overcome 14 failed attempts to join the United Nations.
But lead singer Freddy Lim said his six-piece band won
sympathetic awareness of the isolation that China imposes on
Taiwan from rock fans who previously couldn't locate the island
of 23 million people.
"For these young people, it's very logical and natural to
support Taiwan to join international society and for Taiwanese
to share the same international rights that they have," he told
reporters in Washington on Thursday.
"But the politicians in the United Nations seem to think
it's more logical and natural to sacrifice Taiwan in their
political games," said Lim.
China blocks self-ruled Taiwan's U.N. application every
year because it views the island as part of its territory and
not a separate country. The two sides split after the Chinese
civil war in 1949, and Taiwan left the United Nations in 1971
when China was admitted.
Taiwan's 15th annual bid to join the world body will be put
before the U.N. General Assembly on September 18 and Taiwan
President Chen Shui-bian has pulled out all the stops this time
with satellite video conferences to American audiences.
Chen will beam his message to New York on Friday in the
latest event in a campaign that has drawn rebukes from senior
U.S. diplomats, who warn Taipei against provoking a Chinese
government that has not ruled out using force against Taiwan.
In ChthoniC's new English single, "UNLimited Taiwan," Lim
shouts "UNLimited Island. UNLimited fight" with the guttural
roar of Goth music.
In conversations with reporters, however, Lim speaks softly
and politely in fluent English, raising his voice mainly to
chide U.S. officials who have condemned Chen's plan to hold a
referendum on Taiwan's U.N. application next March.
"Is this country still the United States of America, or
just a province of China?" he asked, before thanking the U.S.
government for issuing his band visas.
Reuters
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