President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) envoy to APEC, former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), is expected to meet with US President George W. Bush at the annual meeting underway in Lima, Peru, a top US official said on Friday.
But how the two will meet was left unsaid as Dennis Wilder, the senior Asian director for Bush’s National Security Council, mentioned the possible meeting during a briefing for the US press aboard Air Force One en route to the meeting.
His comment came just one day after Taiwan lodged a protest with Peruvian authorities over Taiwan’s exclusion from an informal meeting of APEC foreign ministers held on Wednesday.
PHOTO: AP
Taiwan was excluded along with Hong Kong, which became part of China in 1997.
Wilder made his comments as part of a long statement praising Bush’s accomplishments in Asia during his eight-year presidency, apparently linking Bush’s policy with an easing of tensions between Taiwan and China.
“The president will have an opportunity to meet with former vice president Lien Chan during the sessions of APEC,” Wilder said. “And [Bush is] interested to hear from both the Chinese side and the Taiwan side not only about what’s been accomplished so far, but that they’re going to accomplish in the future in terms of adding to peace and stability on the Taiwan Strait.”
Lien’s attendance at the APEC meeting is itself a reflection of Bush’s policy, Wilder said while ticking off Bush’s accomplishments.
“At this APEC you will see a former vice president of Taiwan representing Taiwan at this Asian economies meeting. Eight years ago, that would have been unthinkable,” he said.
“Eight years ago, the United States and China were at odds over Taiwan and how to deal with the Taiwan issue. There were great strains caused by this issue in the US-China relationship,” he said.
“Working very closely with [Chinese] President Hu [Jintao (胡錦濤)], working with the officials on Taiwan, you have seen in the last few months a huge reduction in the tensions along the Taiwan Strait,” he said, citing specifically the recent visit to Taiwan by Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).
“And at this conference, you will see a former vice president of Taiwan sit down at international meetings with world leaders. This is a real opening and a real change and a real reduction in tensions,” he said.
Wilder also praised Bush’s personal style as a reason for a relaxation in cross-Strait tensions.
Hu had a “great deal of confidence and faith in the [US] president, in part because the president was very honest and candid with him on where we were on Taiwan, but also kept his promises in relation to Taiwan that we would not support independence in Taiwan, that we would not support provocative steps on Taiwan, but also, that we weren’t going to let Beijing bully Taiwan,” Wilder said.
“And I think the fact that the president was able to walk that line with the Chinese and maintain a very productive relationship shows the skills, really the diplomatic skills that the president brought to that relationship,” Wilder said.
Meanwhile, the US State Department this week gave a hint on how it would treat the Taiwan delegation to the 2011 APEC annual meeting, which it will host.
In a notice in the Nov. 19 Federal Register, a compendium of official US government announcements, the department invited cities and major resorts to submit proposals to hold events at the meeting.
In it, the department said that “the President of the United States, 18 other heads of government and representatives from Hong Kong and Taiwan are expected to attend.”
The department did not specify what it meant by “representative” in its reference to Taiwan. Nor it is clear whether the term represents an agreement between Washington and Beijing over the nature of the Taiwanese presence at the meeting.
It was also not clear whether the linking of Hong Kong and Taiwan had any significance.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS