Rejoining the Club: The Republic of China on Taiwan's Bid for United Nations Participation: Prospects and Portents.

The loss of Taiwan's UN seat in October 1971, and the rapid erosion of Taipei's diplomatic standing during the 1970's, seemed to seal Taiwan's fate in the international arena. Yet by 1993, three forces coalesced which encouraged Taiwan to regain the UN seat. The post-Cold War surge of new UN memberships, the extraordinary socio/economic growth on Taiwan itself, and Taiwan's rapidly changing democratic landscape, all encouraged political pressures to expand Taiwan's international standing. The paper traces the evolution of the Taipei government's bid for UN participation by probing a number of political possibilities, being blocked by Beijing, to currently pursuing a policy of pragmatically seeking "meaningful participation," in UN specialized agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]