Hu's reference to the referendum at an international event revealed that it worried Beijing, as it has always avoided to internationalize what it aees as a "domestic issue."
Eager to demonstrate that it was not siding with China on the Taiwan issue, Bush made it a point to laud Taiwan's democracy.
Tensions between Taipei and Beijing were later eased by Taiwan's special envoy to the APEC summit, Stan Shih (施振榮), who tried to shift the focus from politics to business. The attempt, however, did not seem to have succeeded, as both local and international media continued to field questions on cross-strait relations. Nevertheless, through light conversations, such as Hu's interest in Shih's Mandarin accent, Shih managed reduce some of the pressure that had built up since the beginning of the summit.
The US then held landmark three-way security talks with Japan and Australia. Despite the three parties' insistence that their meeting was not aimed at isolating China, the details of their discussion were not made public.
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