[JURIST] The UN General Assembly [official website] agreed by consensus Friday to accept a committee recommendation that Taiwan's latest bid for UN membership [JURIST reports] be rejected. Taiwan, which officially refers to itself as the Republic of China, was kicked out of the UN in 1971 by General Assembly Resolution 2758 [PDF text] and replaced by the People's Republic of China as the representative of China. This is the 15th straight year that Taiwan's application for UN membership has been rejected.

Earlier in the week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon agreed to allow the General Assembly to consider Taiwan's application, but also said [transcript] that the UN Secretariat had determined that "it was not legally possible to receive the purported application for membership" because of the 1971 resolution. Taiwan is currently proceeding with a national referendum [JURIST report] on the subject of its membership in the United Nations despite opposition from China. China has threatened to invade Taiwan if it ever formally declared independence. AP has more.