The leaders of APEC members, including US President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), will meet Monday in Bangkok, and once again Tai-wan's president won't be there. The reason: persistent pressure from China on APEC members not to allow any of Taiwan's leaders to attend.
But rather than refuse to participate in an organization that treats it differently than other members, the government will once again choose compromise over confrontation.
"It's in Taiwan's interests to participate in this kind of regional organization," said Philip Yang (楊永明), associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University. "Taiwan gets more channels and opportunities than before to improve bilateral relations with other members of APEC."
Prevented from attending themselves, presidents have traditionally sent an economics official as their envoy. But for the second year in a row, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is sending a chemist -- Nobel laureate and Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲).
"APEC is not just about economic cooperation anymore. It is now more political," said Deputy Secretary-General to the Presidential Office Joseph Wu (吳釗燮).
"So we have been trying to work out how to upgrade our representation. We needed to find someone higher in status than economics officials," Wu said.
But finding someone who is worthy of representing the country at such a meeting and is also acceptable to China has been a troublesome, and sometimes insurmountable, task.
Taiwan joined APEC in 1991, along with China and Hong Kong. Previously, APEC had been a grouping of member "states," but this was altered to "economies" to allow in Hong Kong and to appease Chinese demands about Taiwan's status.
Until then, the highest level of contact at APEC was the foreign ministers' meeting. Because China regarded a foreign minister as a symbol of statehood, Taiwan had to sign a memorandum of understanding with South Korea, which was hosting that year's ministerial meeting, agreeing that it would not send its foreign minister or vice minister.
The West's increasing interest in Asia elevated the status of APEC so that, in 1993, arrangements were made for the first informal meeting of APEC's leaders. China then demanded that host countries not allow Taiwan's president, vice president, premier or vice premier to attend these meetings. Countries hosting the meeting have always heeded China's demands, even though the limits on Taiwan's representation were never formally agreed or written down.
"The nature of APEC is not like any other institutionalized, legalized international organization," Yang said. "There's no constitu-tion, no standard procedures. So it's all based on understanding, consensus and practice."
One understanding was that as a member "economy," Taiwan could send economics officials, so then president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) sent Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), then head of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), to represent him at the first two leaders' meetings.
For subsequent meetings, Lee picked Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Koo Chen-fu (
When he first came to power, Chen struggled to break prece-dent. For the 2000 meeting, Chen had wanted Lee Yuan-tseh to go, but China regarded him as persona non grata because of his support for Chen during the election. Chen then turned to Siew, but the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), of which Siew was a vice chairman, refused to let him attend, and Chen settled for central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南).
The situation in 2001 was even more complicated because China was hosting the meeting. Beijing refused Chen's nomination of former vice president Li Yuan-tzu (李元簇) and Taiwan pulled out of the meeting altogether.
In Lee Yuan-tseh, Chen now seems to have found a candidate with enough standing in Taiwan and who is acceptable to China, even though he has little experience in many of the topics that are discussed at these meetings.
Yang said Lee Yuan-tseh's relative anonymity outside of scientific circles could actually work in his favor in highlighting the way APEC treats Taiwan.
"Everybody knows this guy is representing the president of Tai-wan," Yang said. "But Lee Yuan-tseh is not an economist. He doesn't hold any economic position, or even policy-making position. He's a scholar, the head of an academic institute. So, [people will ask] why is he here?"
Yang compared Lee to Koo, a well-known businessman in the region and Taiwan's top diplomat in cross-strait relations.
"Koo Chen-fu can be a good representative for Taiwan's economy, not for Chen Shui-bian. It's very subtle," Yang said.
Despite Lee Yuan-tseh's appa-rent lack of kudos in the international community, Wu said his standing in Taiwan made him a suitable choice. Academia Sinica is a prestigious institution, Wu said, and its president is regarded as the same level of seniority as the presidential secretary-general.
"Lee is sensitive to political issues, has an international reputation and sophisticated English," Wu said. "He is very good at many things and is sometimes treated like a philosopher.
"He's also very close to the president and is able to convey the president's message in English," he said.
Another one of APEC's unwritten rules is that Taiwan cannot host the leaders' meeting, a situation the government is hoping to change.
"As a member economy of APEC, Taiwan has hosted a number of successful APEC meetings and activities over the years," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) said.
"There is accordingly no doubt that Taiwan is entitled and has the ability to host APEC meetings of higher level. Hosting the [leaders' meeting] is a desirable target we can set in our continuing participation in APEC," Shih said.
Taiwan has hosted meetings no higher than vice minister, but it could be possible to gradually raise this, although hosting a leaders' meeting seems unlikely.
"We have no immediate plans," Wu said, referring to hosting a leaders' summit. "An assessment has been done and it's not realistic because China would not accept it.
"APEC covers more and more areas," he said. "So the time might come when it would be appropriate for Taiwan to host ministerial meetings in substantive areas such as the environment or
education."
Yang said that in the short term, there is little the government can do to raise its level of representation at APEC. He suggested that the government try to lead the agenda on topics it has most experience in and pressure the organization to let it host ministerial-level meetings. But he said pulling out of any further leader's meetings was out of the question.
"Of all the APEC forums, the leaders' summit has the most political symbolism," he said. "If Taiwan doesn't participate, it's like trying to show this is not an economic institution. It's like playing politics."
He said Taiwan would have to set itself long-term goals to revise the written and unwritten rules that prevent full participation in APEC by Taiwan.
"Every year, I think we have to express our disagreement about this kind of arrangement," he said, "and then work on the host country."
Graham Norris is a freelance writer in Taipei.
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