This year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation APEC leaders’ meeting, which was attended by TSMC founder Chang Chung-tseng last year, will be held shortly. According to Taiwanese media reports, this year William Lai’s attempt to send Chen Chien-jen, a former deputy leader of the region and an “Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences”, was rejected by the Peruvian side.
According to Taiwan’s“United Daily” reported on October 15, this year’s APEC meeting with the theme of“Empowerment, inclusion, growth” will be held in Peru in mid-november. Under Mr Tsai Ing-wen, it was Mr Zhang who attended in 2016 and 2017, with the exception of James Soong, chairman of the PFP. This year, it emerged that William Lai had intended to be represented by Chen Chien-jen, but had not been agreed to by the Peruvian side.
Peru recently told the Taiwan authorities that APEC needs a consensus decision among its members, and that it would not be convenient for them to send an invitation letter to Taiwan because they want people with no political background to participate in the APEC operation, “Which is tantamount to rejecting this proposal,” according to the Taiwan economic daily website. As a result, William Lai intends to send Stan Shih, Acer’s founder, to attend, according to the report. However, a spokesman for William Lai’s office said on the 14th that relevant candidates are still under discussion, as in the past, if there is a definite arrangement, will be timely release of the report.
In October 1991, China and APEC signed a memorandum of understanding on the trilateral accession of the mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong, making it clear that China, as a sovereign state, and Taiwan and Hong Kong, as regional economies, “Taipei, China” and“Hong Kong”(changed to“Hong Kong, China” as of July 1,1997) . The island can only send economic officials related to APEC to the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its “Foreign minister” and “Deputy Foreign Minister” are not allowed to attend. Thereafter, the APEC meeting will not be held in Taiwan for the sake of the smooth conduct of APEC work and the convenience of all members.
“United Daily” 15 bluntly, the good and bad cross-strait relations, has been affecting the Taiwan side of the APEC meeting candidates. Since the Lee Teng-hui administration, candidates have had to be acceptable on both sides of the strait, such as the late Koo Chen-fu and Chiang Pin-kung Chen Shui-bian, who came to power seeking support from the business community in the face of cross-strait turmoil, the choices included Stan Shih and Vincent Siew, who did not attend APEC meetings for many years until the rapprochement under President MA ying-jeou in 2008. Cross-strait relations were strained under Tsai Ing-wen James Soong, who was a delegate to APEC but was considered too pro-china by some in the Green Camp, and by 2018 he had expressed no interest in attending. At that time, Cai authorities had considered the former“Premier” Lin Quan, but was opposed to the final selection of Zhang Zhongmou. Now that William Lai is in power, the article says, APEC faces questions about who should attend, not least because Zhang is 93 years old and not fit to travel, and Chen Chien-jen’s status is clearly too sensitive, “Peru didn’t say yes. Now we have to find someone else.”.