President Chen Shui-bian (
During a meeting at the Presidential Office with Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), who will head the delegation, and other delegates to the APEC ministerial meetings, Chen said he wants them to take every opportunity, private or public, to make known Taiwan's sincerity in bolstering cooperation among all APEC economies and its concrete plans toward that goal.
PHOTO: CNA
The delegates should actively seize every opportunity to talk with their counterparts, particularly those from the US, China, Japan and Russia, Chen said.
Lee has been assigned by Chen to attend the APEC meeting in Santiago, Chile, on Nov. 20 and Nov. 21 on his behalf.
Chen said he is confident that Lee would achieve these tasks to win international support and respect for Taiwan again this year. Lee also attended the APEC informal leadership meeting on Chen's behalf last year and in 2002.
Noting that APEC is one of the few international groupings that has both Taiwan and China as members, Chen said that although he cannot attend the leadership meeting in person due to Beijing's obstruction, this does not mean that Taiwan's resolve in contributing to APEC efforts as a member would be lessened.
Chen said that Taiwan is not only resolved to support the implementation of various APEC projects and plans, it also keenly expects that other APEC economies will throw their support behind the projects that Taiwan plans to field this year. These include an avian flu prevention project and regional cooperation in vaccine research and development.
He added that Taiwan cannot afford to restrict itself under the current difficult circumstances that it faces due to Beijing's ubiquitous diplomatic suppression and the international community's reluctance to offend Beijing.
"We must take the initiative in creating opportunities for ourselves and make as many friends as possible in the international community, particularly in important dialogue platforms such as APEC," Chen said.
As security will be one of the main themes to be discussed at this year's APEC conferences, Chen said, the delegation should express the country's desire to play an active role in cultivating a safe living environment and explain its past contributions in this regard.
Chen received a formal invitation from Chilean President Ricardo Lagos Escobar last month to attend the APEC meeting but decided to let Lee attend on his behalf to spare the host country any unnecessary trouble.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods