ISTANBUL
Taiwan on Friday urged Pope Francis against excluding Taipei from the international stage for reasons of politics.
“I earnestly hope that international organizations will stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons. Taiwan is willing to shoulder its international responsibilities so that it can contribute and share its valuable experience through many global platforms,” Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te said in a letter to the Vatican.
He added that “authoritarian regimes” like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran threaten the world and the Indo-Pacific’s “peace and stability,” adding that “war has no winners.”
Lai’s letter was in response to the pontiff’s message of world peace issued on Jan. 1.
Nearly 1% of Taiwan’s population of 23.4 million is estimated to be Catholic Christians.
China last October extended by four years a provisional agreement with the Vatican on the appointment of bishops.
China has an estimated 12 million Catholic Christians, and the pact allows the two sides to name the bishops in the country, which boasts the world’s second-largest population.
Beijing views Taiwan as a “breakaway province” though it has governed itself since 1949. Beijing has vowed to reunify with the island, including by force if necessary.
