Officials from Taiwan, China and the US declined to confirm yesterday whether former vice president Li Yuan-zu (李元簇) would be allowed to represent Taiwan in the upcoming APEC summit in Shanghai.
"We informed China who we've chosen to represent Taiwan on Oct. 9, but we are still waiting for Beijing's reply," Katharine Chang (
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has tapped Li to be his envoy at the regional summit, scheduled to be held in Shanghai on Oct. 20 and Oct. 21.
Chen's administration suggested China accept Li's attendance to the 21-member regional leaders' summit in his capacity as the senior advisor to the president, sources said.
Sources inside the Presidential Office said that China has "tacitly consented to" Chen's choice.
But others within the government have reservations. "Beijing's holding all the cards ... What if the final answer from Beijing is a stark denial?" said a foreign ministry official on condition of anonymity.
Foreign ministry officials were tight-lipped as to whether a second choice is waiting in the wings if China objects to Li.
During a press conference in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi (
"It's currently inconvenient to reveal concrete details and operations," Sun said.
Sun also declined to reveal whether Taipei had held prior consultations with Beijing concerning Taiwan's representative at the summit, or whether Beijing would dispatch a special envoy to Taipei to deliver its acceptance or denial of Taiwan's choice.
In Washington, a senior State Department official said there was no immediate indication that Li's attendance would be a problem, although the US had not yet heard from Beijing on the matter.
"At this stage we have no indication that there's going to be a problem," said Lawrence Greenwood, the department's senior official for APEC.
"Noting that the United States has not been formally notified of Li's appointment," Greenwood said, "we would, frankly, wait to hear from the chair as to whether there was an issue that we needed to discuss or not."
Greenwood said he does not know much about Li and would not comment on his appointment specifically. However, he said Washington would welcome Taiwan's "positive and constructive participation" in the meeting.
"Our view is that Taiwan has played a very constructive role in the past and will continue to play a very constructive role in APEC, a very valuable role at all levels -- at the senior level, the senior official level and the ministers level, and at the leaders' meeting. And that, you know, we look forward to seeing that continue, and I believe that will be the case," he said.
Greenwood declined to comment on whether Washington felt Li's appointment was appropriate.
Last summer, both the State Department and US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said that the Bush administration favors the status quo, in which the senior Taiwan representative to APEC has been an economic or financial leader, something Li is not.
China said last month that it would issue a formal invitation to Taipei's representative to the summit once the candidate was finalized.
Shen Ssu-tsun (沈斯淳), Taiwan's senior APEC official at the foreign ministry, would not comment yesterday when asked about the progress of negotiations with his Chinese counterpart Wang Guangya (王光亞).
But Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Hung-mao (
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