Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), Taiwan's representative to the APEC leaders' summit, interacted in a friendly manner with Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) and US President George Bush on the first day of the two-day meeting Saturday, in Los Cabos, Mexico.
At the beginning of a closed-door meeting in the afternoon, Lee was said to have taken the initiative to shake hands with the Chinese leader, while at a dinner banquet it was Jiang who took the opportunity to introduce the Taiwanese leader to his wife, Wang Yeping (王冶坪).
Highly concerned about the cross-strait issue, Bush was said to have asked Lee at the end of the meeting if he had greeted the Chinese leader.
"Lee stood up, walked towards Jiang upon his entering the hall and extended his hands to Jiang. Lee told him, `I am Lee Yuan-tseh,'" Deputy Director-General Frederick Chang of the Government Information Office (張平男) told the media, according to Lee's description after the 70-minute closed-door meeting.
"Jiang had a nice smile, very friendly," Lee was quoted as saying.
"Prior to the dinner, Lee's wife, Wu Chin-li (吳錦麗), approached and chatted with Wang when she entered the dining room, Lee then walked towards the two women,"said academician of Academia Sinica Hu Sheng-Cheng (胡勝正), an advisor to Taiwanese delegation, who also attended the dinner party.
"Jiang quickly joined the three, then introduced Lee to his wife, saying to her: "This is Mr. Lee from Taiwan.'"
A press release stated that the Lee couple talked with most of the couples before the dinner started.
Lee and his wife sat next to and conversed with the Bushes during the dinner.
Hu said Lee had been satisfied with his own performance for the first day.
The two-day leaders' summit kicked off Saturday with a closed-door meeting on anti-terrorism, a meeting with the APEC Business Advisory Council, ending with a banquet hosted by Mexican President Vincente Fox.
The fight against terrorism was top of the agenda for a second year at the 21-member summit, 13 months after al-Qaeda terrorists attacked New York and Washington.
Echoing the views of other leaders on the urgency of curbing extreme violence, Lee agreed with measures taken by APEC members, such as tightening security checks at airports, cutting off terrorists' funding and preventing computer networks being utilized as tools for terrorist communications.
However, to eliminate terrorist activities altogether, what's more critical is to understand the root of the problem, he said.
He pointed out that poverty, contradiction among social classes and incongruent views on ideological belief, culture and religion have all contributed to the proliferation of terrorism since the Cold War.
"To eradicate terrorist activities, one needs to reinforce education, abolish poverty and engage in dialogue between different cultural and religious groups," Lee said.
"These efforts would foster mutual understanding and respect for different values, and ensure longstanding peace and prosperity while seeking common ground among differences."
These endeavors, Lee stressed, were in line with the spirit of the founding of an "Asian Pacific community" -- an initiative launched at the APEC leaders' summit in Seattle in 1993.
Lee told the leaders in attendance that Taiwan has supported the anti-terrorist efforts with concrete actions.
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