EDITORIAL: Interpol’s closed door dangerous

Saturday marks the official beginning of the Summer Universiade. From now until the end of this month, Taiwan will be responsible for the safety of more than 7,500 athletes from 141 countries.

The ability to quickly and efficiently share potential security threats, information about unwanted individuals, and lost and found information with other nations would be invaluable.

Interpol’s database would provide just that. Unfortunately, Taiwan is one of very few nations denied access to that database.

Interpol, which is based in Lyon, France, aims to provide its 190 member nations (out of the world’s 196 countries) with effective and real-time communication between their police forces.

One particularly useful Interpol service is its I-24/7 global police communications system, which allows members to share sensitive and urgent police information year-round, day and night.

Another useful resource to have access to would be the Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database.

In a recent interview, Representative to France Zhang Ming-zhong (張銘忠) said that if Taiwan is to ensure the safety and security of the athletes participating in the Universiade, it must be able to share intelligence with other nations. Taiwan made numerous requests to access information from the I-24/7 database, but was rebuffed, Zhang said.

Each inquiry is met with the same response: Any request must be made via Beijing.

It is crazy that the nation is being excluded from such an important international organization. Not just because of what Taiwan can get from it, but also because of what it could contribute — as with global health issues and the WHO, so with law enforcement and Interpol.

Zhang was quite clear about the problem’s cause: Interpol is too concerned about what Beijing thinks.

He has a point: Since November last year, Interpol’s president has been Chinese Deputy Minister of Public Security Meng Hongwei (孟宏偉). His term ends in 2020.

Meanwhile, since Taiwan is excluded from accessing Interpol’s database, we have to rely on information provided by the US and Japan, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said on Saturday.

As with many of Taiwan’s troubles participating in international organizations, this exclusion is the direct result of pressure from Beijing. It is also due in no small part to the insistence of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that Taiwan still represents the true government of China, under the name of the Republic of China (ROC).

Interpol was formed in 1923. The ROC became a member state in 1961, but withdrew for all practical purposes, in 1984, when the People’s Republic of China joined.

As part of its application for Interpol membership, China demanded that the Taiwanese delegation change its name to “Taiwan, China,” that Interpol cease referring to the delegation as “ROC,” and that ROC membership could only continue as a sub-bureau of China, thereby losing its right to vote in plenary sessions.

Then-president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) could not accept these conditions, and so Taiwan essentially withdrew from Interpol.

Attempts to participate, even as an observer nation, failed last year, despite support from the US, which last year signed into law legislation requiring the US secretary of state to develop a strategy to obtain Interpol observer status for Taiwan. Further attempts are unlikely to succeed as long as Meng is Interpol’s president.

Taiwan has been limited for decades by the illusion of the ROC, and its claims to represent China. The KMT, which formerly equated itself with the ROC, is an antiquated, spent force. If this country wants to participate in international organizations, it has to do so as Taiwan — and let the ROC go.