Opposition parties said Chen "seemed to fail to predict China's possible response, and even misconstrued China's intentionally ambiguous response as an acquiescence to Li's presence."
Officials of the Presidential Office, in the course of their negotiations with China, told the media that they had reached an understanding with China and that they were just awaiting the invitation. Until the evening of Oct. 18, optimism about Li's presence still prevailed at high-level national security meetings. As well, public statements said that "Li was the one and only choice."
"Of course the government also considered other representatives and the foreign ministry also knew of the need for participation," said the official from the Presidential Office. "But China even refused to send an invitation to Taiwan. This was no longer a question of who represents the president. If we continued to acquiesce then we would be telling the international community that Taiwan is no different from Hong Kong," the official added.
Officials responsible for national security said that, although China's actions were ill-mannered, Taiwan also needed to adjust its decision-making process. National security decision-makers admitted that decisions were made by a handful of people in the Presidential Office, who tolerated China's bullying in the course of negotiations and kept everything secret while waiting for China's goodwill response.
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