President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday appealed to the Aus-tralian government to end its 33-year ban on Taiwanese leaders visiting the country.
In an interview published in the Australian newspaper, Chen also called on Australian Prime Minister John Howard to help Taiwan gain an invitation to next month's summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in South Korea.
Australia has barred visits from Taiwanese leaders since 1972 when Canberra established diplomatic relations with Beijing.
Chen was quoted yesterday as saying that he respected Australia's formal diplomatic links with China but believed this should not prevent practical cooperation between Taipei and Canberra.
He notably asked to be allowed to at least make transit stops in Australia on his way to visit the six South Pacific nations that have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
Howard's government has been actively seeking to boost its relations with China, launching preliminary talks earlier this year on a bilateral free trade agreement and negotiating the possible sale of uranium to Beijing.
Howard has also suggested that Australia's close ties with the US and its growing links with China have put his government in a good position to help mediate tensions between the two giants, including those relating to Taiwan's status.
In yesterday's interview, Chen said he believed that APEC could be used to soften his country's conflict with China. But China's insistence that Taiwan is not a sovereign state means its president has never been allowed to attend an APEC leaders' summit.
"I believe if justice and equality exist in international society, the Australian government should speak out in favor of Taiwan and allow its president to participate [in APEC] alongside its [Australia's] leader," Chen said.
"At a time when the Bush administration wants a peaceful resolution of this [the Taiwan Strait issue], I believe APEC will serve as the best site for discussion of this issue," he said.
A spokesman for Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told the newspaper the government would be happy to have the Taiwanese privately raise issues of APEC representation but would not discuss the issue through the media.
Meanwhile, the Australian's editorial published yesterday called on the Australian government to give "serious consideration" to Chen's requests.
"Taiwan is a thriving democracy. That, alone, militates for Mr. Chen's remarks to be given serious consideration," the editorial said.
"Mr. Chen's requests on APEC and stopover visits to Australia are reasonable. The former, however, is a no-no as far as China is concerned and will not happen, for now. The latter is already the case for several countries that follow a one-China policy, including the US, and may be manageable," the editorial added.
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