Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials denied allegations that China boycotted APEC's privatization forum held in Taipei yesterday, saying that a concurrent meeting on Hainan Island in China had already been on the group's calendar and China's absence from the two-day forum should not raise suspicion.
"I never speculate on [China's] motivation behind moves like this. These activities have already existed on APEC's calendar for some time," said Shen Ssu-tsun (沈斯淳), director-general of the Department of International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Among APEC's 21 members, 14 took part in the third APEC privatization forum that started at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday, according to a press release issued by the Council for Economic Planning and Development.
China as well as six other APEC members were absent from the forum. As the 2001 APEC host country, China held two APEC working-level meetings in Hainan that clashed with the forum held in Taipei, triggering speculation that by doing so, China had intentionally "staged a rival show" against Taiwan.
The privatization forum includes a two-day meeting of the APEC Company Accounting and Financial Reporting Task Force that began yesterday. The other is a three-day finance ministers' technical working group meeting due to begin today as a preparatory meeting for the annual APEC finance ministers' meeting scheduled to take place in Suzhou, China in September.
Officials said China's absence from the Taipei forum was not novel. "For this kind of forum, not every APEC member necessarily attends. It's often the case that only eight to ten members take part," said Calvin Ho (
Officials said these two meetings in Hainan as well as the forum in Taipei were arranged a long time ago, denying charges that China arranged the meetings in Hainan in order to distract members from the privatization forum in Taipei.
Evidence of China's opposition to participation in APEC by Taiwan as any entity other than as a part of China was presented at the APEC trade ministers' forum in Shanghai from June 6 to June 7.
Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) lodged a complaint with China's trade minister Shi Guangsheng (石廣生) over the refusal by Chinese officials to recognize him as a bona fide minister.
During the APEC Investment Mart that was held in Shandong Province from June 9, some felt that Chinese officials tried a number of underhand tactics in an effort to denigrate Taiwan.
On documents relating to the meeting, China initially violated the established APEC practice of using English only by adding the Chinese characters "中國台北" behind "Chinese Taipei," which has been Taiwan's title under APEC.
Chinese officials also held back materials prepared by the Taipei delegation, threatening that any written materials that had the word "national" on them would be forbidden from being distributed during the function, officials at the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
Taiwan then protested against China's move and began related negotiations with the Chinese side. China then conceded, and removed the Chinese characters and returned the materials they had held back to the Taipei delegation, officials said.
APEC is the only intergovernmental organization Taiwan has been allowed to participate in since most countries cut official ties with the country in the 1970s.
RSS