Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀), who is representing Taiwan at the APEC summit in San Francisco, on Friday said he hoped that the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) helps reduce tensions between the two superpowers and in the region.
The meeting could also promote economic stability and reliable supply chains, Chang said.
“You don’t have to be a leader to know that if there is no peace, there is no supply chain to start with,” Chang told a news conference at the close of the APEC summit.
Photo: CNA
Chang said the Biden-Xi meeting was a “good” one, pointing to their agreement to resume high-level military communications.
“It should help reduce the tensions between the US and China, and it should increase stability of Taiwan Strait,” Chang said.
Tensions have flared in the past few years as Beijing increases military pressure on Taiwan.
It was a high priority when Xi and Biden met for four hours on Wednesday at an estate outside San Francisco in their first face-to-face meeting in a year.
Xi sought assurances from Biden that the US would not support Taiwanese independence and requested that Washington support China’s peaceful annexation of Taiwan.
Biden urged Xi to refrain from military exercises in and around the Taiwan Strait, adding that Washington remains unchanged in its policy toward Taiwan and that it opposes any unilateral changes to the “status quo” from either side.
At Friday’s news conference, Chang said that he had “many interactions” with Biden, but no formal talks, adding that he spoke with senior US officials, including US Vice President Kamala Harris, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard.
“My interactions with President Biden [were] of a social, in fact, I might say, humorous nature,” Chang said.
“With [US] Secretary of State Antony Blinken, I mainly conveyed our strong desire for regional peace and prosperity, and also to some extent our very strong desire for increasing the supply resiliency,” he said.
Chang said he also had discussions with at least half of the leaders of the 21 economies in the region on issues such as regional peace, economic development and supply chains, but that he did not have any exchanges with Xi.
Chang, representing President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the APEC summit for the seventh time, said Tsai tasked him with sending the message to APEC that Taiwan is committed to regional peace and prosperity, and that it would work with its partners to control climate change, build more resilient supply chains and reduce the digital divide.
“I think I’ve done it — that I tried my best to convey the four messages,” Chang said.
The 92-year-old first attended the annual APEC event in that role in 2006, during the administration of then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Taiwan joined APEC in 1991 under the name “Chinese Taipei,” but its presidents have been blocked by China from attending its leaders’ summit.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
RSS