Sat, Oct 20, 2001 page1

• Delegation protests against host's `irrational behavior'

  • By Monique Chu / STAFF REPORTER
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  Taiwan won't be participating in this weekend's APEC leaders' summit due to Beijing's refusal to issue an invitation to the nation's chosen representative, former vice president Li Yuan-zu (李元簇).

  The Taiwan delegation in Shanghai yesterday issued letters to the group's members, "unequivocally" protesting China's "irrational behavior" in obstructing Taipei's attendance at the leaders' meeting.

  "China has severely infringed upon our right to take part in APEC by violating established APEC practices and thus harming the credibility of APEC," Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) said yesterday.

  Lin also noted that it was not Taiwan's choice to be absent from the summit -- as China has refused to be a good host at the meeting.

  "We have been forced to be absent from the summit. We're not intentionally boycotting the meeting," he said.

  Lin said Taiwan's absence from the summit should be considered "a special case," given the complicated political situation between Taiwan and China.

  Taiwan's enthusiasm and willingness to take part in APEC will not diminish, Lin said, and the country will continue to participate in the organization.

  Lin said he also found it "infuriating" when Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan (唐家璇) refused to allow Lin to speak on the issue of Taiwan's representation at a press conference on Thursday.

  "As the chairman of an international meeting, Mr. Tang, by cutting off my remarks, not only violated international norms, but revealed his rudeness and irrationality," Lin said.

  The economics minister said the representation issue wasn't brought up during bilateral talks with his counterparts from Japan and the US. "Channels were already in place for us to communicate and negotiate with China," he said.

  The representation issue had been negotiated between Taiwan's Shen Su-tzen (沈斯淳), a foreign affairs official, and Wang Guangya (王光亞), his Chinese counterpart.

  Zhu Bangzao (朱邦造), spokesman of the Chinese foreign ministry, disputed the idea that China was being a bad host, saying invitations were sent to Taiwan for the summit.

  But Shen disagreed with that account. "We've received three notices of the meeting, which had no specific mention of the intended recipient nor the sender," Shen said.

  In addition, Shen noted that China broke with the established APEC practice of sending an envoy to Taipei to hand deliver an invitation to the meeting.

  "Since 1993, every year the host country has dispatched an envoy to Taiwan to deliver the invitation," Shen said. "But this year was an exception, as we failed to see any envoy sent by mainland China to deliver the invitation to us."

  China tried to put the blame on Taiwan. "Taiwan has not proposed a candidate which was in accordance with related provisions, and we have expressed our regrets over that fact," Zhu said.

  Other foreign officials expressed their dismay that Taiwan wouldn't be present at this year's meeting.

  "There is a formula that has been used every year so far in APEC," said an Australian official under condition of anonymity. "And `Chinese Taipei' has been represented so far. I think it's a shame that we haven't been able to put that in place. But I don't know the details why `Chinese Taipei' is not coming this year."

  Larry Greenwood, an APEC senior official from the US state department, declined to comment on the matter, saying he wasn't familiar with the details.

  But the veteran US official noted the positive role Taiwan has played in APEC since joining group in 1991.

  "Taiwan has been a very constructive player in APEC in the past, was very constructive this week, and will continue to be a constructive member of APEC," Greenwood said. "We fully expect Taiwan will be a full and constructive participant in APEC at all levels."

  Since 1993, Taiwan has sent its chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) and its central bank governor to the meeting.

  In addition, the nation's top negotiator with China, Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), has attended the summit in his capacity as a CEPD consultant -- a special designation that had been given to him each year before the summit so he could attend the international gathering.
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