China's breach of APEC's established practice of sending an envoy to Taipei to invite Taiwan's president for the annual APEC leaders' summit in Shanghai has angered some officials here while others have urged Beijing not to downgrade Taipei's participation in the meeting.
"Hasn't Beijing often said people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait are Chinese? If so, it should not treat officials from Taiwan as its inferiors. This was unreasonable and should not have happened," said Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Hung-mao (
Tien's response was triggered by a foreign ministry official's confirmation on Tuesday that China only sent a fax via senior APEC officials to notify Taipei of the informal APEC leaders' meeting, also known as the APEC summit, scheduled for next month.
"In May, a fax reached us. But we did not see it as an invitation. I personally saw it as notice of the meeting," the official said on condition of anonymity.
The fax lacked the name of the recipient, and only asked Taipei's senior APEC official to forward the paper to concerned bodies, the source said.
Taiwan's government spokesman, Su Tzen-ping (
Since 1994 it has been APEC's established practice for the host country to send an envoy to Taipei to deliver an invitation to Taiwan's president to attend the summit, upon which the president would decline the invitation and instead appoint an envoy acceptable to Beijing and the host country to attend in his stead.
Insiders and officials have criticized Beijing's disregard of established practice, saying it would do little but annoy Taiwan.
"China's handling of this international affair was clumsy and it will not win the approval of the people of Taiwan," said a source at the National Security Council.
"China has already got an upper hand anyway. And if it didn't want Chen [Shui-bian, 陳水扁] to go, he would not have been able to. So this humiliating and rude move will do nothing but trigger Taiwan people's strong aversion to Beijing," said an analyst.
Being the host country this year, China has held various APEC ministerial meetings and has refused to address ministers from Taiwan by their official titles.
Since 1993, when the summit was initiated by then US president Bill Clinton, Taiwan's president, premier and vice premier were not allowed to attend the summit at China's insistence.
A source close to President Chen told the Taipei Times that the push and pull over Taiwan's representation at the summit was ongoing, with the present objective being to win approval for Chen's attendance.
"We hope to send someone who is as representative as possible," said a source at the National Security Council.
Analysts say Chen will not be allowed to attend, and the most likely envoy would be Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南), governor of the central bank, who represented Chen last year at the APEC summit in Brunei.
"Perng attended the summit last year ? And the rank of the central bank governor is often viewed as above the ministerial level," an insider said.
Chen's government first favored Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), Taiwan's top negotiator with China, to represent Chen at the summit, but the proposal was met with stark opposition from Beijing.
"Chen's government thought that if Koo could go to Shanghai, it would be a breakthrough in cross-strait relations as Koo might thus be able to meet his Chinese counterpart in Shanghai. But this is daydreaming," the insider said.
"China views the linkage of APEC and cross-strait issues as a taboo. So, it doesn't permit cross-strait interactions to be linked with APEC. Therefore, China won't allow Koo to attend the APEC summit," the insider said.
"But whoever represents Chen at the summit will have a tough job," the insider added.
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