Taiwan voiced fresh support yesterday for China's entry to the WTO, but political analysts said that Taipei's latest political tussle with Beijing has muddied the island's own pathway into the international organization.
"China's entry to the WTO would be a win-win result for both sides," said Wu Rong-i (
"We'll be very happy if China and the United States can reach a deal for China to enter the WTO," Wu said.
A US-China summit on the sidelines of the Sept. 7-13 APEC forum in Auckland is widely seen as a chance to mend badly frayed ties and give a final push to China's WTO accession.
Such a deal would have major implications for Taiwan, which has sought WTO entry almost as long as its huge rival has, but also knows that its accession hinges on China's.
Analysts say Taiwan may have hurt its WTO hopes in July when President Lee Teng-hui (
"At APEC, the Chinese communists will try to use the WTO issue to establish the fact that Taiwan is part of China. They will try to reaffirm the superior-subordinate relationship in the international arena," political analyst Tim Ting said. "APEC is the perfect place to do so."
Beijing tolerates Taiwan's membership in APEC, an unofficial grouping of 21 Pacific Rim economies, but has thwarted Taipei's efforts to elevate its diplomatic status at APEC by blocking participation by Lee.
Some of Taiwan's APEC delegates, speaking in Taipei before travelling to New Zealand, said they had no intention of getting into a fresh political battle with China at Auckland and would focus only on economic issues.
"Nobody, including ourselves, wants to touch that issue," said economist Wu, referring to Lee's politically explosive "state-to- state" gambit.
Schive Chi (
"We have completed bilateral talks with the 26 WTO members that sought them and signed pacts with 25 of them," Schive said.
"No single member has veto power," he said.
But analysts say Taiwan faces a tough hurdle in the case of Hong Kong, the only WTO member that has yet to sign its Taiwan pact and whose foreign relations are controlled by Beijing.
In recent years Beijing has said it does not oppose Taiwan's entry as a non-sovereign customs territory like Hong Kong, but only after China itself gains membership.
Schive said Taipei would closely monitor the meeting between Presidents Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin, reiterating Taipei's view that a Sino-US deal on China's accession to the world trade club would be a "very positive step."
Taipei has said it hopes to become a WTO member by year end, but Schive said that timetable was "flexible."
Schive said that Taipei's delegation, led by three cabinet ministers, had no intention of making official contact with Chinese delegates during the APEC forum.
Taiwan participates in APEC as Chinese Taipei rather than under its official name, the Republic of China.
Starting with the first APEC summit in the United States in 1993, meeting hosts have invited Lee as a courtesy but made clear through diplomatic channels that he was unwelcome.
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