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APEC refers to Ma as president

The policies of “diplomatic truce” and “modus vivendi” were successful strategies that improved cross-strait relations and contributed to the goodwill and respect APEC showed to Taiwan this year, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday.

Ma made the remarks in an interview with M-Radio in Taichung City yesterday, referring to the list of countries and leaders issued by APEC, in which Taiwan was referred to as “Chinese Taipei” while Ma was addressed using his official title, along with his photo.

“This was the first time that the country’s president was introduced in an APEC document and it shows that we have adopted the right strategies of no unification, no independence and no use of force,” Ma said.

Ma appointed former vice president and honorary Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) as the nation’s envoy at this year’s APEC summit meeting in Lima, Peru, making Lien the highest ranking former Taiwanese official to attend the meeting. Lien is scheduled to leave for Lima on Wednesday.

At a separate setting yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed Peru’s gesture as the first APEC host country to publicly refer to Taiwan’s head of state as “president” on the official APEC Web site.

This was also the first time since Taiwan became an APEC member-economy in 1991 that a host country published a picture of a Taiwanese president on the Web site.

“We always welcome any gesture that promotes normalized relations between Taiwan and the international community. Using President Ma Ying-jeou’s picture and his official title as president [on the Web site] is a positive development,” acting ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) said.

Because of objections from Beijing, Taiwanese presidents are barred from attending one of the grouping’s key policymaking summits, which means that the president must appoint a non-governmental special envoy as his representative.

In past years, Taiwan’s representatives were mostly business leaders or senior economic advisers.

Taiwan’s official national designation, the Republic of China, is still banned from being used at APEC, where Taiwan is known as “Chinese Taipei.”

While pan-green supporters claim the use of “Chinese Taipei” undermines Taiwan’s sovereign status, the pan-blue camp views it as a satisfactory compromise in exchange for Taiwan’s participation in the organization.
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