President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday said that Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) will attend APEC's informal leaders' meeting in his place, because of his desire not to put South Korea in a difficult diplomatic situation.
Even though Chen had several times expressed the hope of joining the APEC summit on Nov. 18 and 19, his request was rejected by South Korea early last month.
Chen told special South Korean envoy Yun Hai-jung that he didn't want to vex the South Korean government or President Roh Moo-hyun if there were difficulties in granting the request, despite stressing that he had the right to take part in the meeting.
"Taiwan's participation in the APEC summit should be no different from other members. If I am unable to attend, it would be with great regret, and it would discriminate against the 23 million people of Taiwan," Chen said.
Chen said that the Chinese government had no right to decide whether he could attend the summit or not, and had no right to vet Taiwan's representative.
The US, which supports Taiwan's participation in the APEC summit, responded positively to Chen's actions, saying it was a "creative move" to send the legislative speaker, Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General James Huang (黃志芳) said.
In line with long-established protocol, the 2005 APEC summit organizing committee sent a special envoy to Taipei in July to forward an invitation to Chen.
While APEC is one of the few international organizations that admit both Taipei and Beijing, the president has been unable to attend previous APEC informal meetings because of opposition from Beijing.
Lee Yuan-tseh (
"As Lee has modestly declined to the president on account of his attendance in previous years, Chen decided to name another person to be his envoy," Huang said.
Chen said Wang had agreed to attend the summit, which is to be held in Busan, South Korea, in November.
Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun praised Wang as a suitable delegate.
"As a speaker of the Legislative Yuan, the highest representative body in the nation, Wang reflects a majority of public opinion. He is also an experienced politician and very respectable person," Yu said.
Meanwhile, Wang yesterday said he was duty bound to represent Chen if everything was "appropriately arranged," and that he would report to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at an "appropriate time." He said that Chen asked him to consider representing him in August.
Wang yesterday hesitated to specify whether he was willing to take up the job, but said that anybody should be happy to make a contribution to the country when the opportunity arises.
Wang said he believed Ma would "respect the nation's overall interest," and added that the official invitation extended by the host country yesterday was just the beginning of the matter, and that the Presidential Office would inform Ma of the arrangements when the time is right.
In response, Ma said he did not know of the news until yesterday morning.
"I will discuss the issue with Wang, and inform the public about my decision after I understand the whole situation," he told reporters yesterday after receiving a group of visiting Republicans from the US.
Asked if he felt slighted that Chen did not inform him about the news before asking Wang to attend APEC, Ma said "of course" he did.
"But President Chen has always been like this. He always announces things as he pleases," he said.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih and Ko Shu-ling
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 —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS