The choice of KMT Vice Chairman Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) to represent President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) at this year's annual meeting of APEC leaders in Brunei was approved by the host country yesterday.
Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Yu Shyi-kun held a press conference yesterday to announce Brunei's confirmation, which was received through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at around 4:30pm yesterday.
"Brunei has formally notified us of its willingness to accept [the arrangement]. Chen then rang up Siew to tell him the news and Siew agreed in principle to accept the appointment," Yu said.
In what Yu described as a move to "respect the KMT," the president also called KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
However, KMT spokesman Jason Hu (
"Lien appreciates the president's good intentions, but the final decision is in the hands of a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting [this afternoon]," Hu said.
Lien is to meet Chen at the Presidential Office this morning.
Chen had originally asked Vice Premier Lai In-jaw (
Siew attended APEC summits in 1993 and 1994 in his capacity as chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development. A former premier, Siew, as the KMT's vice presidential candidate, competed against the DPP's Chen in the March election.
Since the meeting of APEC leaders in 1993 in Seattle, Beijing has pressured the conference's organizers into refusing to let Taiwan's president, premier or vice premier attend the group's annual summits.
In 1995, Taiwan intended to send former premier Yu Kuo-hua (
Yu said Siew would attend the summit in his capacity as "the president's special envoy, which is a kind of official representative."
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