Former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) was scheduled to meet with Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli (張高麗) after arriving in China’s Hainan Province yesterday afternoon to attend the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, sources said.
Zhang is Beijing’s principal vice premier, as well as a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee.
Siew is attending the four-day forum, which began on Thursday, as honorary chairman of the Taiwan-based Cross-Straits Common Market Foundation.
Photo: CNA
Sources said Siew would lead a delegation of Taiwanese entrepreneurs, including HTC Corp chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅), to meet with Zhang at about 6pm.
Local media yesterday cited Siew’s office spokeswoman Wang Ling-hui (王玲惠) as saying that the former vice president holds no government position and is attending the forum as head of the private foundation, so he would not be conveying any messages from President Tsai Ying-wen (蔡英文) or deal with any issues related to cross-strait ties for the government.
The forum, modeled on the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland, also has a fixed venue in Hainan that China uses to invite leaders from governments, business and academic circles in Asia and other regions to exchange views on economic development.
China has held the annual forum since 2001 and Siew first attended the conference in 2008.
Siew has twice met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) at previous forums, but no such arrangements have been made for this year’s meeting, as Xi is reportedly busy preparing for a summit with US President Donald Trump scheduled for next month and Li is on an official trip to Australia and New Zealand.
The theme of this year’s forum is “Globalization and Free Trade: The Asian Perspectives.”
Cher Wang was scheduled to attend a meeting on virtual-reality (VR) development at 5pm yesterday and discuss VR-related technology with China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘).
HTC is a pioneer in the field of VR development in Taiwan, with its first VR headset, the HTC Vive, going on sale worldwide last year.
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