Vice president-elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) arrived in China yesterday for the Boao Forum and is scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) today.
“I hope that through this meeting we can deepen the understanding between the two sides and also create a basis for common trust,” Siew told reporters at the resort of Boao, on the east coast of the Chinese island of Hainan.
“It’s also my hope that through this meeting we can help break the ice, so I call this an ‘ice-breaking trip,’” Siew said.
PHOTO: CNA
Siew spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) told reporters the 20-minute meeting would take place today. Hu’s meeting would involve the Taiwanese delegation and would not be a one-on-one encounter, Wang said.
Siew will also meet with former US secretary of state Colin Powell, former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and former Philippine president Fidel Ramos on the sidelines of the three-day economic forum.
Siew is a veteran of the Boao Forum in Hainan, having attended it since 2003 in a private capacity as chairman of the Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Siew, and he has met Hu there in the past.
However, any meeting this time round will take on much greater significance as Siew is now vice president-elect.
Prior to his departure from Taipei yesterday morning, Siew pledged to take advantage of the forum to introduce the nation’s economic development and future blueprint for the future to the world.
“I will use the occasion to introduce Taiwan’s economic development and also connect the nation’s economy with the global economy,” Siew said before departing Taoyuan International Airport.
After a transit in Hong Kong, Siew arrived in Haikou, the capital of Hainan, before heading to Boao.
The Taiwanese delegation includes founder and chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) Morris Chang (張忠謀), Taiwan Cement Corp (台泥) chairman Leslie Koo (辜成允), and Walsin Lihwa Corp (華新麗華) chairman Chiao You-lun (焦佑倫).
Former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起), who now acts as president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) top aide, and Chan Hou-sheng (詹火生), executive director of the Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation, will also attend the forum.
Siew will hold a roundtable meeting on the Taiwanese economy and cross-strait economic relations tomorrow before heading back to Taiwan.
In an interview with DPA on Thursday, Ma, talking about Siew’s trip to China, said that: “If he [Siew] has a chance to meet with high officials from the mainland through the channel of the Boao Forum, he certainly will express our wishes to have peace and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait.”
“Of course, the meeting at the Boao Forum will be relatively short,” Ma was quoted as saying. “Most of the issues will have to be left for future discussion and negotiation. The forum itself will provide a useful beginning for a different relationship across the Taiwan Strait compared to that of the last eight years.”
Meanwhile, the Taiwan Friends of Tibet group has issued an open letter to Hu and asked Siew to bring it to the Chinese president.
The letter urged Hu to “stop repression and all kinds of aggressive actions against the people of Tibet and start a sincere dialogue with the [Tibetan] government-in-exile led by the Dalai Lama.”
The group said an electronic copy was forwarded to Wang, who accompanied Siew on the trip.
“I haven’t seen it because I don’t have Internet access here,” Wang told the Taipei Times via telephone. “I’ll probably not have it throughout the trip.”
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