In his letter to the pope, President Chen said that though the world has not responded positively to Taiwan’s bid to join the United Nations, he still believes that with the support of the Pope and allied countries, Taiwan would one day gain the goodwill of the international community.

On January 1, the Pope penned a message entitled “The Human Family, A Community of Peace,” which Ambassador Tou Chou-seng delivered to Chen.

In his response to the Pope, Chen said that Taiwan would play its part to protect the earth and its environment. Though Taiwan is eager to assist on many critical issues involved in the fate of mankind, it has been unable to make much headway due to its exclusion from the international community.

Chen said that excluding Taiwan from the United Nations, the World Health Organization and other global organizations seemed to be at odds with the pope’s hope that the world would “act in harmony and intensify dialogue between nations.”

Chen said that the missiles along China’s southeast coast, reportedly numbering in the thousands, threaten peace in Taiwan and across Asia, and that the situation goes totally against the moral values that the Pope advocates.

President Chen also stated that he felt Taiwan had been unfairly excluded from the United Nations, and that the exclusion had deprived Taiwanese citizens of their basic rights and violated the U.N. principle of open membership, as outlined in the organization’s charter.

President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan had sent a letter to his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in response to the Pope’s call for world peace.

The president also noted that Taiwan had attempted to apply for U.N. membership under the name of Taiwan but was unable to gain any support from the majority of the global community.