Juan Carlos Capunay, executive-director of the APEC forum, yesterday steered clear of the sensitive issue of whom Taiwan would send to the APEC informal summit of economic leaders to be held in Lima, Peru, next month.
“I don’t know anything about that [the candidate],” Capunay said when asked about the purpose of his visit. “There is a task force in Lima responsible for the arrangement.”
Capunay yesterday attended the opening session of the five-day APEC Digital Opportunity Center 2.0 (ADOC 2.0) International Conference, during which he talked about the achievements made in ADOC phase one and the prospects of ADOC 2.0.
This was Capunay’s second visit to the country since the end of July.
Local media reported at the time that Capunay delivered an invitation in person to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to participate in the 16th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting that will be held in Lima on Nov. 22 and Nov. 23.
However, Capunay would not comment on any question relating to the highly sensitive political issue of Taiwan’s delegate to the summit, insisting that both his visits to the country were to attend seminars.
Under a special arrangement made for Taiwan to participate in APEC, the country’s president has to designate a special envoy to the summit on his behalf.
Since the first APEC informal summit in 1993, Taiwan has tried to send officials at the highest possible level to the meeting, but its efforts have been blocked by objections from China.
Taiwan has instead sent Nobel Laureate Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) and well-known entrepreneurs, among others, to represent it at the summits.
The government’s choice of envoy to the APEC summit this year will be an indicator of the status of cross-strait ties, as Taiwan to date has not succeeded in sending a top-level representative to the meeting.
The choice will also test China’s reaction to Ma’s new diplomatic strategy of a “modus vivendi” and of seeking a “diplomatic truce” with China aimed at ending the longstanding diplomatic tug-of-war between the two countries.
Asked to comment on current cross-strait relations, Capunay said: “Things are doing very well but I cannot make any opinion from my position.”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
A former ASML Holding NV employee is facing a lawsuit in the Netherlands over suspected theft of trade secrets, Dutch public broadcaster NOS said, in the latest breach of the maker of advanced chip-manufacturing equipment. The 43-year-old Russian engineer, who is suspected of stealing documents such as microchip manuals from ASML, is expected to appear at a court in Rotterdam today, NOS reported on Friday. He is accused of multiple violations of the sanctions legislation and has been given a 20-year entry ban by the Dutch government, the report said. The Dutch company makes machines needed to produce high-end chips that power
As South Korea descends into political chaos, its equity market risks falling further behind major tech rival Taiwan, which is basking in the glory of a global artificial intelligence (AI) boom. A near-30 percent surge in Taiwan’s stock benchmark this year, set to be the best since 2009, has already helped spur a historic divergence between Asia’s two tech-dominated markets. The nation’s market capitalization now exceeds South Korea’s by about US$950 billion as the world’s AI frontrunners from Nvidia Corp and Microsoft Corp to OpenAI all increasingly turn to Taiwanese firms for supply. Looking ahead to next year, while both export-oriented economies
RSS