China’s call on APEC meet
During last year’s APEC summit in Indonesia, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) expressed his willingness to engage Taiwan in political dialogue.
Political issues should not be left to the next generation to resolve, Xi said.
Although the idea of such an unprecedented meeting taking place between the two nation’s leaders remains rather optimistic, champions of the meeting have not given up trying.
APEC was founded in 1989. It currently has 21 members — not all of them sovereign nations. All the APEC heads of state attend the leaders’ meeting under the title of economic leader. Taiwan has been a member since 1991, going by the name “Chinese Taipei,” but Taiwan’s leaders are barred from APEC summits due to objections from China, which claims sovereignty over the nation. To avoid political complications, Taiwan is traditionally represented by a retired politician rather than a sitting president.
APEC was designed for economic leaders to meet without using their official titles, and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) reiterated his hope to meet with Xi at next month’s APEC meeting, saying that it would be a convenient venue to sidestep the thorny issues of non-recognition between the two sides. Thus, Taipei [was] still trying to persuade Beijing to agree to a historic meeting between the top leaders this year.
It is generally believed that a Ma-Xi meeting would be more symbolic than substantial. However, if it happens, it would be a great achievement in itself. If Beijing were willing to signal to 23 million people in Taiwan that it is willing to take on the cross-strait issue, the best way to do so would be to agree to the meeting.
The meeting is scheduled for Nov. 10 and 11 in Beijing and the ball is in China’s court. While maintaining its principles, Beijing should be strategically flexible and creative in a bid to help sustain peace across the Taiwan Strait.
Can Ma and Xi meet? Can Beijing maintain firmness in principle, without forgetting the need for flexibility, creative thinking and groundbreaking approaches? It all depends on Xi.
If Beijing passes up this rare opportunity to hold a landmark meeting, any regret will be too late.
Kent Wang
Potomac Falls, Virginia
Having lived through former British prime minister Boris Johnson’s tumultuous and scandal-ridden administration, the last place I had expected to come face-to-face with “Mr Brexit” was in a hotel ballroom in Taipei. Should I have been so surprised? Over the past few years, Taiwan has unfortunately become the destination of choice for washed-up Western politicians to turn up long after their political careers have ended, making grandiose speeches in exchange for extraordinarily large paychecks far exceeding the annual salary of all but the wealthiest of Taiwan’s business tycoons. Taiwan’s pursuit of bygone politicians with little to no influence in their home
US lobbyist Christian Whiton has published an update to his article, “How Taiwan Lost Trump,” discussed on the editorial page on Sunday. His new article, titled “What Taiwan Should Do” refers to the three articles published in the Taipei Times, saying that none had offered a solution to the problems he identified. That is fair. The articles pushed back on points Whiton made that were felt partisan, misdirected or uninformed; in this response, he offers solutions of his own. While many are on point and he would find no disagreement here, the nuances of the political and historical complexities in
Taiwan faces an image challenge even among its allies, as it must constantly counter falsehoods and misrepresentations spread by its more powerful neighbor, the People’s Republic of China (PRC). While Taiwan refrains from disparaging its troublesome neighbor to other countries, the PRC is working not only to forge a narrative about itself, its intentions and value to the international community, but is also spreading lies about Taiwan. Governments, parliamentary groups and civil societies worldwide are caught in this narrative tug-of-war, each responding in their own way. National governments have the power to push back against what they know to be
The Ministry of the Interior late last month released its report on homes that consumed low amounts of electricity in the second half of last year, offering a glimpse of the latest data on “vacant houses” — homes using less than 60 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month. The report showed that Taiwan had 914,196 vacant houses, or a vacancy rate of 9.79 percent, up from 9.32 percent in the first half of last year and the highest since 2008, when it was 9.81 percent. Of the nation’s 22 administrative areas, Lienchiang County (Matsu) had the highest vacancy rate at 17.4
RSS