The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) hit out at China, the host of this year’s APEC summit, over the way it has treated Taiwan and its presidential envoy, calling on it to respect the right of Taiwanese to have meaningful participation in the international community.
“Beijing should try to respect and understand the wishes of Taiwanese to have meaningful participation in the international community,” DPP spokesperson Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said in a press release yesterday. “Restrictions and downgrading the nation only upset Taiwanese, leading to stronger resentment against the Chinese government.”
Huang said that instead of sending an envoy to deliver the invitation to the summit to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Beijing asked its Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Vice Minister Gong Qinggai (龔清概), who happened to be visiting Taiwan, to hand the invitation to Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦).
Since former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), who attended as Ma’s special envoy, set foot in Beijing, he has been received by the TAO, not by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as leaders or special envoys from other countries have been, Huang said, adding that Siew’s press conference after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Sunday also took place at a different venue from those held by other national leaders and their representatives.
“We regret the downgrading of Taiwan’s representative at the APEC summit by Beijing and we equally regret that officials in Ma’s administration did not protest; rather they accepted such downgrading without questioning it,” Huang said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesperson Chen Yi-hsin (陳以信), on the other hand, accused the DPP administration under former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of downgrading itself.
“During the DPP administration, the eight APEC envoys included former Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南), presidential adviser Lin Hsin-yi (林信義), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) and Acer chairman Stan Shih (施振榮),” Chen Yi-hsin said. “However, since Ma took office, the seven envoys he has named so far have all been former vice presidents — the political symbolism is certainly higher than it was before.”
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