September 25, 2024
No. 316
Renowned nonprofit organization Concordia held its annual summit in New York from September 23 to 25. At Concordia’s invitation, President Lai Ching-te delivered a prerecorded speech at the summit on September 24. He reiterated that neither democratic Taiwan nor authoritarian China was subordinate to the other. He also condemned China for maliciously distorting United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 and inappropriately conflating the resolution with its “one China principle,” thereby depriving Taiwan of the right to participate in the United Nations and other international fora.
President Lai further emphasized that Taiwan was actively implementing the Four Pillars of Peace action plan. He said that without yielding or provoking, Taiwan would maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and do its utmost to preserve regional peace and stability. He expressed the hope that more countries would support and walk together with democratic Taiwan on the path of prosperity.
During the summit, Ambassador Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Representative to the United States, held a discussion with former US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Keith Krach on “Taiwan’s Democratic Resolve: Shaping Global Security and Peace Through Strategic Cooperation.” Ambassador Yui stressed that maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait was an indispensable element in global prosperity and economic growth. He also noted that China’s continuous deployment of gray-zone tactics such as economic coercion and cognitive warfare to intimidate Taiwan not only threatened cross-strait peace and stability and global security and development but also undermined the rules-based international order. He said that democratic countries must work in solidarity to deter authoritarian expansion.
Pointing out that Taiwan supplies more than 90 percent of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, Ambassador Yui said that the Taiwan Strait was an important route for international trade and that Taiwan was an indispensable partner for building sustainable supply chains and a digital future, as well as for promoting global prosperity and development. He urged the international community to give due attention to the gravity of Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN system and other international organizations and to proactively incorporate Taiwan’s professional expertise and contributions into global sustainable development plans. He said that this would be truly in line with the UN commitment to leave no one behind.
Since its establishment in 2011, Concordia has made significant efforts to foster influential cross-sector public-private partnerships, gaining prominence in the UN community in New York. The Concordia Annual Summit has been held during the UNGA in September for 13 consecutive years and had US President Joe Biden, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and former President Tsai Ing-wen among its keynote speakers. (E)