Any attempt to break up China or to promote Taiwan's participation in the United Nations was doomed to fail, Tang said.

Tang, who is here to attend the 57th General Assembly session, made the statement after the General Committee of the UN General Assembly decided not to consider the Taiwan issue during its current session.

The committee's decision foiled for the 10th consecutive time Taiwan's attempt to join the world body.

The decision was announced by Jan Kavan, president of the General Assembly, after a long debate on the proposal raised by Gambia and a few other countries in an attempt to get the issue onto the agenda of the assembly session which opened at UN headquarters on Tuesday.

Wang Yingfan, China's permanent representative to the UN, criticized the Taiwan move as being aimed at creating "two Chinas," or "one China, one Taiwan." Wang noted that it was "in violation of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations as well as General Assembly Resolution 2758."

Diplomats from more than 60 countries also stressed that the issue of China's participation in the UN had already been resolved in Resolution 2758 at the 26th General Assembly session and that debate on a settled issue was a sheer waste of time.

In 1971, the 26th session of the assembly adopted, by an overwhelming majority, Resolution 2758, which recognizes in unequivocal terms that "the representatives of the Government of the People's Republic of China are the only lawful representatives of China to the United Nations, and that the People's Republic of China is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council."

In his statement to the General Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, Wang said that it is an indisputable objective reality and legal fact widely recognized by the international community that there is only one China in the world and that Taiwan has been an inseparable part of China's territory since antiquity.

He stressed, there is simply no such issue as the so-called "Taiwan representation in the United Nations" issue.

Wang said that as part of China, Taiwan is already covered in China's representation at the UN and is thus not eligible to participate on its own, in any other name or under any pretext, in the work or activities of the UN or its specialized agencies.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said Thursday the rejection of the Taiwan bid demonstrates once again the firm determination of the vast majority of UN members.

"We seriously warn all separatist forces in Taiwan not to misjudge the situation," Kong said. They must immediately stop all separatist activities, he said.

The spokesman also urged the few countries behind the Taiwan bid to observe the UN Charter and stop activities detrimental to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

(China Daily September 13, 2002)