Former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) yesterday said that he expected his planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jin-pyng (習近平) at the APEC summit next week to focus on issues related to APEC and cross-strait economic ties.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) designated Siew to attend the summit in Indonesia on Monday and Tuesday next week, in line with the practice since the forum’s inception in 1993 that Taiwan has never sent its president to the summit, only representatives who act as envoys.
At a pre-departure press conference yesterday, Siew was cautious when answering questions about what his meeting with Xi would mean for cross-strait relations amid speculation that the inclusion of Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) in his entourage was to pave way for a future Ma-Xi meeting.
Photo: CNA
Wang is the first Taiwanese official not in charge of APEC-related affairs to attend an APEC event.
His participation in the delegation as an advisor on cross-strait issues has aroused suspicions that a planned meeting between Wang and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) could be a harbinger of cross-strait political talks or a Ma-Xi meeting.
Siew told the press conference that he expects to discuss issues of economic and trade cross-strait cooperation and regional integration with the Chinese president.
Due to the limited time allotted for his meeting with Xi, Siew said he did not expect that issues unrelated to cross-strait matters and the APEC’s three-point agenda this year — attaining the Bogor Goals, sustainable growth with equity and promoting connectivity — would be raised.
Nevertheless, Siew said he is prepared to discuss other issues if they are brought up.
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:
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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