Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) is due to leave for Shanghai on Sunday for a ministerial meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, an official said yesterday. Lin would hold discussions with his counterparts from other APEC members from June 4 to June 5 before joining the ministerial meeting June 6 to June 7, the official from his office said.
After the APEC meetings, Lin will visit Taiwanese firms in China but details of his itinerary have yet to be finalized, she added.
Lin, now accompanying President Chen Shui-bian (
Earlier this month, the country's top economic planner Chen Po-chih (陳博志), chairman of the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (經建會), attended an APEC manpower meeting in Beijing.
The 2001 series of APEC gatherings, hosted for the first time by China, will culminate in a leaders summit in Shanghai.
The October summit will be the largest gathering of heads of state on Chinese soil since the establishment of the PRC in 1949.
President Chen had offered to join the summit and talk with his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin (
China said his attendance would violate the principles for the the country's membership in the 21-member regional organization.
"It has already been agreed in the past that Taiwan is attending APEC meetings as a regional economy, and that ... Taiwan can only send its economic leaders to participate in APEC summits and other meetings," a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said. "This understanding cannot be breached."
The country in the past had been represented by industrialists and senior officials at the summit, after joining the body as "Chinese Taipei" in 1991 in line with conditions set by Beijing.
APEC was set up in 1989 as an informal talking group for a dozen Asia-Pacific economies but has developed into a powerful engine to drive global and regional free trade.
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