By Ruth Youngblood

BEIJING, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- The two highest officers of the Taiwan International Alliance said Tuesday they were denied visas to attend a forum accompanying the U.N. World Conference on Women despite China's pledge to allow all registered participants to attend.

The Chinese organizers "just lie and lie and lie," said Executive Director Margie Joy Walden, who informed the U.S. State Department of the decision hoping to get help. The China Organizing Committee previously denied any concerted action to keep out groups viewed as hostile to the communist. But Foreign Ministry spokesman Chen Jian said not everyone was welcome. "Those whose activities are deemed by China to run against the U.N. Charter or U.N. resolutions or whose activities threaten security" cannot attend the conference or forum," Chen told reporters. "As the host nation, China is responsible for guaranteeing the smooth running of the conference and the safety of participants."

It was the first official acknowledgment China had broken its promise to accept all 36,000 women who registered for the Non-Government Organizations Forum made to the U.N. when the site was switched in April from the Worker's Stadium in central Beijing to the remote town of Huairou a 90-minute drive from the conference venue. Chen said the numbers affected by the prohibitions are "very small," adding he knows of only three or four cases.

Walden, an U.S. citizen who works in the group's New York office, said she went to the Chinese Embassy to pick up her visa Monday. "When I presented the official receipt, I was told my passport was missing," she said in a telephone interview. Then Walden said she was told her name was not on the list of participants to be granted visas.

Walden reminded the staff the receipt was issued based on the inclusion of her name. "A supervisor told me the visa was denied and the consulate does not have to give any explanation.". Hsiu-Lien Annette Lu, the alliance's president and the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Taiwan's legislature, applied for her visa at the New China Liaison Office in Hong Kong. Lu said her membership in the Democratic Progressive Party was initially mentioned when the application was rejected, but the Chinese official later told her travel agent Lu "knows the reason why she is being denied."

Earlier this month the Chinese Organizing Committee said 70 women had applied from Taiwan and all 70 would be accepted. The alliance seeks to heighten awareness of the accomplishments of the Taiwanese and bolster Taipei's participation in international forums. Taiwan's attempts to secure U.N. membership have infuriated Beijing.

With the 10-day forum starting Aug. 30 and the conference Sept. 4, the NGO Forum Committee acknowledged they have been inundated by phone calls from women whose names are not on embassy lists for visas. While promising to expedite the database, several forum participants said they are sure China is using the visa process to bar those backing independence for Tibet, greater international stature for Taiwan, some gay rights advocates and a few religious groups.

Many women are simply the victims of the backlog in processing so many people," said Anne Walker, who heads the International Women's Tribune Center in New York, "but it appears certain groups are being screened out in the process." Although two members of the organization are already in Huairou, Walker said she is concerned about her own visa because the group was among the first to threaten a boycott when China moved the site to Huairou, insisting the Worker's Stadium had structural problems.

Walden said the supervisor, identified only as Ms. Liu, refused to discuss her application or how she could get a refund for the non- refundable China Air ticket, which was required by the China Organizing Committee for visa approval. A representative of the North American Taiwanese Women's Association was turned down, Walden said. China has also reportedly refused to grant visas to the delegation from Niger for the conference. Beijing severed diplomatic relations with the west African country in 1992 when the government officially recognized Taiwan. Walden said she did not know whether the rejections were part of China's anger over Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui's visit to the United States in June. "We can't rule anything out," she said.

China, which is currently conducting guided missile exercises in the sea north of Taiwan, regards Taiwan as a rebel province since the end of the civil war in 1949 and has sought to isolate the island diplomatically.