Membership Bid for Taiwan Is Quashed

China and its backers blocked a bid to get the General Assembly to consider granting Taiwan membership in the world body. The proposal, sponsored by 14 mostly Central American and African nations, was rejected by the assembly’s general committee. Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing to the Communists in a civil war. But Taiwan held China’s U.N. seat until 1971, when it was replaced by the Beijing government. China considers Taiwan a renegade province and opposes any bid to grant the island recognition.