Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (
Lee made the remarks at a news conference held after briefing President Chen Shui-bian (
Prior to his departure for the Chilean capital, Lee said he had repeatedly reminded local journalists that APEC is basically a multilateral economic cooperation forum, not an avenue for political wrangling or diplomatic maneuvering.
"However, since my arrival in Santiago, many Taiwanese reporters relentlessly questioned me about my interaction with Hu. Some reporters' attitudes were rude. In the end, I told them that in fact, I felt Hu's attitude toward me was friendlier than theirs," Lee recalled.
This was the third consecutive year that Lee has served as Chen's proxy at the annual APEC summit meeting.
Lee said he hopes that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait can talk after Taiwan's Dec. 11 legislative elections to mend their differences. Cross-strait peace and stability are not only critical to Taiwan and China but also important to the world as a whole, he added.
Moreover, Lee said he looks forward to seeing Chen attend the 2005 APEC summit in person.
"Chen's attendance is of great significance as it will symbolize progress in cross-strait relations," Lee said.
Because of Beijing's opposition, Taiwan's head of state cannot attend the annual APEC summit in person and has to name a proxy to attend on his behalf.
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,
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read: