Trying to send Taiwan's president to APEC summits will only lead to disappointment, analysts warned yesterday, saying the government should focus on less controversial issues.
"If our goal of attending APEC is to make our president attend, no matter what we do, the rest of APEC will say to us, `It's all right with us as long as it's all right with Beijing,'" said Mignon Chan (詹滿容), director-general of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, a think tank specializing in APEC-related issues.
Attending a seminar on East Asia's economic development in Taipei yesterday, scholars and officials worked to identify feasible goals the nation should work to achieve during the summit.
Chan made the statement in response to a paper on Taiwan's role in APEC, presented by Wu Linjun (
The ongoing efforts by Taipei to send its head of state to the forum has brought nothing but disappointment to Taiwan, Wu said, especially considering all the media coverage on the issue when the region's heads of state first attended an APEC meeting in 1993.
And it wasn't until President Chen Shui-bian's (
Wu pointed out Taiwan's inability to host APEC meetings and its exclusion from any political discussions on the sidelines of APEC because of pressure by Beijing.
Chan said that if Taiwan's goal of attending the regional grouping was to change Beijing's professed "one China" principle, they will be forever disappointed.
"After all, none of APEC's members will sacrifice their national interests for the sake of Taiwan," Chan said.
Ho Chen-sheng (
China has blocked Taiwan's president, vice president and premier from attending any APEC summit since 1993, when the leaders' summit was first held in Seattle at the suggestion of former US president Bill Clinton.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique