Washington should invite President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to the APEC leaders’ summit in November, a group of US representatives said in a joint letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“Given Taiwan’s important economic, cultural and technological contributions to the region, we believe President Tsai Ing-wen deserves our full respect as much as Taiwan deserves fair and equal treatment on par with those of other recognition and standing in APEC member states,” 21 US representatives said in the letter sent on Tuesday.
Taiwan has been a critical partner of the US and “has played an increasingly important role in regional economic growth and development” with its advanced technologies, it said.
Photo: Reuters
Tsai’s participation would be consistent with the US’ Taiwan policies and would bolster ties between the two countries, while “continuing to exclude Taiwan’s full participation in APEC at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party sends the wrong message” that the US is asking China for permission regarding its foreign relations, it said.
Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) yesterday said Taiwan has been playing an active role in APEC for years and would follow the usual procedure to make the “most appropriate” arrangements for the meetings this year.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said that the government would discuss the best arrangement to participate in the summit.
The US is serving as the APEC host this year and is to hold the APEC CEO summit, in which top business executives are to engage in dialogue with APEC leaders in San Francisco during the week of Nov. 12.
No Taiwanese president has participated in the leaders’ summit since the nation joined APEC in 1991.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) has been attending the meeting on behalf of the president since 2018.
Separately, Taiwan is to send delegations to Peru and Chile to canvass support for its bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Roy Chun Lee (李淳) said yesterday.
Asked how long it would take the CPTPP to process Taiwan’s application, given the UK’s accession followed two years of negotiations, Lee said the UK’s application took longer to process due to Brexit.
Following the precedent set by the UK — the first new member since the bloc’s creation — succeeding applications might be processed faster, he said.
However, the reviewing mechanism is unclear, which makes it difficult to predict the progress, he said.
Japan and Canada openly support Taiwan’s bid to join the bloc and Australia supports the inclusion of countries that meet the bloc’s standards, he said, adding that less is known about the stances of Peru and Chile.
Several delegations have been sent to member states this year to rally support for Taiwan’s bid, he said.
The applications by Taiwan and other countries might be on the agenda when the bloc meets in July, but it would be up to member states whether to set up a working group on Taiwan’s application, he said.
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would