Vice President-elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) met with former US secretary of state Colin Powell for a brief talk yesterday on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia, which opened in the southern Chinese resort city the previous day.
Powell met Siew for about 20 minutes. After the meeting, Powell praised Siew’s landmark meeting on Saturday with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), saying it was “very good news for the region.”
“The two sides have begun down a new path ... I think we are at the beginning of a new phase in relations between the parties in Asia,” Powell told reporters. “I hope it’s a path that leads to greater cross-strait activity. I hope it’s a path that leads to new areas of cooperation.”
He said that Siew had been a friend for years, adding that he had also offered his congratulations to president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Siew on their election victory on March 22. Ma and Siew will assume office on May 20.
Siew, meanwhile, said the former top US diplomat had stressed the regional implications of a thaw in the relationship between China and Taiwan.
“[He] hopes this will not only help to bring peace and stability to the relationship between Taiwan and China, but also contribute to security and peace in the entire region,” Siew said.
Siew told the reporters that he had extended an invitation, on behalf of Ma, to Powell to attend their inauguration.
Powell had replied that “he would love to attend the inauguration ceremony, time permitting,” Siew said.
Siew said Powell had visited Taiwan before and that he had a great impression of the country, adding that Powell said he valued their friendship and would like to visit Taiwan again to meet with him.
Siew said that he wrote a preface for the Chinese version of Powell’s autobiography that was published several years ago.
Meanwhile, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday criticized Siew’s last-minute participation at Boao, saying it was arranged by Beijing to divert international attention from its violent crackdown in Tibet.
Chen said that Beijing used the same tactic on March 14, 2005, when it passed its “Anti-Secession” Law.
To divert the international community’s attention from the law, Beijing invited then Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) for a visit, Chen said.
Three years later, Beijing was once again under pressure after its bloody crackdown on Tibetans protesting the Chinese invasion 49 years ago, he said. To divert the international community’s attention, Beijing had asked Siew to attend this year’s Boao Forum, even though registration for the event was already closed, Chen said.
While some Chinese-language newspapers have described the treatment Siew received as that befitting a national leader, Chen said that he thought such a description was “funny” because there was no red carpet or military honors, not to mention the seating arrangements, which saw Siew seated next to Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) and Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho (何厚鏵).
Rather than pay attention to the meeting between Hu and Siew, Chen asked the public to study the remarks Hu made during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Hu said that the conflict between the Chinese government and “the Dalai clique is not an ethnic problem, not a religious problem, nor a human rights problem” but “a problem of either safeguarding national unification or splitting the motherland.”
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