Envoy appeals for Chen to attend economic summit

President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) special envoy to APEC appealed Friday for Chen to be allowed to attend the annual conference in order to have Taiwan's voice heard in the international economic forum.

"Taiwanese people would be thrilled if President Chen could attend APEC personally to talk with his counterparts about various issues directly and openly," Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) told reporters Friday morning. "We don't want to see the cross-strait area become the detonation point of World War III and we'll exert ourselves to make the area a safe and peaceful place."

Lee made the remarks during four separate interviews with TVN, a Chilean TV station; UPI; UCV, a Chilean cable TV station; and AP.

Due to China's suppression, Taiwan's foreign minister and government officials whose ranking is higher than minister have been banned from attending APEC since 1991, when the nation joined the international economic body under the name "Chinese Taipei."