China welcomes Taiwan referendum failure: media

TAIPEI (Reuters) - China has welcomed the rejection of a referendum in Taiwan asking whether the self-ruled island should try to join the United Nations, Taiwanese media reported, in a ballot Beijing had roundly condemned.

The referendum had asked whether Taiwan should apply to enter the United Nations under the name "Taiwan" rather than its official name, the Republic of China. The vote failed the pass the required threshold of electors needed to make it valid.

U.N. membership is probably out of the question anyway, with just 23 countries recognizing Taiwan, and with China, recognized by about 170 countries, a veto-wielding UN Security Council member.

"Chen Shui-bian's administration has put forth a referendum to join the United Nations under the name "Taiwan", but that referendum has failed, which goes to show that the people are not in favor of those who advocate Taiwan independence," Li Weiyi, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office told Taiwanese reporters in Beijing.

"It's the hope of the people across the straits to develop peaceful cross-strait relations and therefore, all of us should work hard on it," Li said, in remarks carried on Taiwanese television.

Chen's Democratic Progressive Party advocates independence for the island which has been run separately from China since defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan at the end of a civil war in 1949.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

Taiwan lost its United Nations seat, which it had held as the Republic of China, to the People's Republic of China in 1971.

The United States, Russia and Britain all criticized the referendum, which was held alongside the presidential vote.

The opposition Nationalists' Ma Ying-jeou, who is more China-friendly, won the presidential election on Saturday in a landslide, promising better relations with Beijing.

President George W. Bush congratulated Ma on his victory and called for more dialogue between Taiwan and China.

"The maintenance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the welfare of the people on Taiwan remain of profound importance to the United States," Bush said in a statement.

(Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee; Editing by Ben Blanchard)