A message of goodwill from President Chen Shui-bian (
"I certainly will deliver a message of goodwill from the president when I meet Jiang," Lee said at a news conference yesterday.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
As the head of the Academia Sinica and this year's presidential envoy to the APEC leaders summit, Lee said yesterday that the meetings are not the place to resolve pragmatic problems, but a goodwill gesture will be certainly delivered. He also said that Chen did not give him concrete instructions about the matter last Friday when the two met.
Lee will depart for Los Cabos, Mexico tomorrow afternoon before which he will still have a chance to meet Chen to discuss details of his mission. Lee will sit next to the US President George W. Bush for four hours and will have the opportunity to meet Jiang.
Answering questions from reporters about what he would say to the two leaders, Lee said, "There are many things to discuss. I don't have any agenda in mind." But he said he would not necessarily ask questions about Sino-US relations and would not mention China's deployment of missiles aimed at Taiwan, because, "That would appear impolite."
"APEC is not the right venue to discuss such issues," he said, adding that, "rather than a field for diplomatic fighting, APEC presents an opportunity for Taiwan to raise its image in the international arena."
The Nobel laureate also said talks with China on the establishment of direct links would not likely materialize at the summit.
After receiving the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1986, Lee had the chance to go to China and visit with Jiang three times during which they talked about technology and education development in China.
"He [Jiang] is not a stranger to me," Lee said.
Denying that Taipei had asked him to pass on any specific message to the Chinese authorities, he said Chen asked him to "give his best regards" to Jiang.
At the news conference, Lee also encouraged Taiwan to have more interaction with China without fearing that Beijing will use direct links as an opportunity to push for unification.
"With the trend of globalization, national boundaries are not that important," he said.
He stressed that the most important thing for Taiwan when attending the APEC meeting is earning respect from other countries by making contributions in the bilateral meetings with leaders from other countries.
He also gave a briefing of his speech which will be delivered at the meeting.
He said oil will run out within 40 years if the current supply and demand of oil continues, and he predicted that there will be an energy crisis within the next 20 years.
Given that research on alternative power sources may not see any real progress within the next 20 years, he said nuclear power might be a temporary solution for this problem.
Since Taiwan and China both joined APEC in 1991, China has blocked Taiwan's presidents and foreign ministers from attending the organization's annual forums.
KMT Deputy Chairman Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), Legislative Vice Speaker Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), and central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) have been consulted by Lee for their experience with APEC.
Also See Stories:
APEC delegation hits Mexican resort
Making the most of the APEC meet
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —