As the APEC summit in Sydney concluded yesterday, Taiwan's special envoy Stan Shih (施振榮) said he had completed his task of conveying messages from President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to "certain leaders."
"I hope I have lived up to [President's Chen's] expectations," Shih told a press conference on the last day of his stay in Australia.
"This is the first time I have participated in a very political event and it was like a load off my shoulders when the summit was over," he said.
Shih declined to reveal what messages Chen wanted him to convey and to whom.
However, Shih said that he had asked US President George W. Bush for his support of Taiwan's Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC) 2.0 project to eliminate the digital divide among APEC countries.
"The rest of our conversation concerned what President Chen entrusted me express to President Bush alone, so I will withhold this from the public," he said.
Shih declined to answer a question on whether he and Bush had touched on the nation's planned referendum on whether to apply for UN membership under the name "Taiwan."
The Acer Group founder also delivered Chen's best wishes to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
"I think he felt [the sincerity]," Shih said.
After a cordial chat with Hu on Saturday, the two yesterday maintained good interaction and discussed cross-strait issues such as the protection of the interests of Taiwanese businesspeople in China, the opening of Taiwan to Chinese tourists and cross-strait flights, Shih told reporters.
Hu has separately lashed out at Taiwan's referendum proposal, saying that applying to the UN under the name "Taiwan" is equivalent to declaring de jure independence.
"Since he knows I'm from the business world, Hu did not bring up political issues," Shih said.
Shih said he hoped that his presence at the meeting as Chen's special envoy would not lead China to take actions against Acer's operations there, adding that he had no political aspirations and had retired from the company.
Taiwanese business and entertainment figures who publicly express support for the Democratic Progressive Party have experienced difficulties entering the Chinese market.
One example is pop diva Chang Hui-mei (
Shih also discussed business with Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the summit. Calderon encouraged Taiwan to increase its investment in Mexico.
As most Taiwanese businesses are small or medium in scale, investing in Mexico is difficult compared with investing in China because of cultural and language differences, Shih said.
The two agreed both governments should offer more incentives for investment, he said.
Speaking about the concrete benefits this year's APEC had achieved for Taiwan, Shih said the nation's participation in the body increased through the introduction of the ADOC 2.0 and Green APEC Opportunity initiatives.
The rare chance to meet major trading partners also helps promote political relations with them, he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last