Showing no sign of willingness to make concessions, China yesterday criticized Taiwan for disregarding what it saw as established APEC practices in dealing with Taiwan's unsettled representation at the weekend's APEC summit in Shanghai.
"There should have been no problem whatsoever. But sometimes questions arise because, as the old Chinese saying goes, `foolish people create trouble for themselves, as originally there's nothing to worry about under the sun' (天下本 無事，庸人自擾之)," Wang Guangya (王光亞), China's vice minister of foreign ministry, said at a press conference yesterday evening.
Wang was the key negotiator with Taiwan on the question of Taiwan's representation at the APEC summit slated to begin on Saturday.
Wang said the APEC meetings in Shanghai have many important items on the agenda such as terrorism and the impact of terrorism on regional and global economies.
"I think APEC members should concentrate on these important issues and should not be distracted by other minor issues," Wang said.
Wang reiterated that the 1991 memorandum of understanding, referring to the agreement signed by Beijing and Seoul and then endorsed by the then 15 members of APEC on the terms of Taipei's entry into the regional grouping, was not a memorandum by China.
"It's a memorandum by APEC," Wang said.
"During the past 10 years, there have been practices by each host of the APEC meeting. If the Chinese Taipei authorities adhere to the provisions of the memorandum and also adhere to common practice, I think there is no problem for the representation issue," Wang said.
Wang made the statement when asked by the Taipei Times whether Beijing has agreed to Taipei's suggestion that former vice president Li Yuan-tzu (李元簇) attend the summit in his revised capacity as a consultant to the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) under the so-called "Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) model." But Wang declined to answer the question in a direct manner.
From 1995 to 1997, Koo, the nation's top negotiator with China as well as senior advisor to the president, attended the leaders' summit in his capacity as a CEPD consultant -- a special designation given to him so that he could attend the international meetings.
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The absence of any indication pointing to a of resolution yesterday evening seemed to indicate that the original departure time of 9am today for Taipei's summit representative to fly to Shanghai is due to be cancelled.
Since 1993, the year the first meeting of APEC leaders was held in the US, Taiwan has sent to the meeting its CEPD chairman, its central bank governor and Koo in his capacity as a CEPD consultant.
The 1991 memoranda of understanding, one signed between Seoul and Beijing and the other signed between Seoul and Taipei, forbade Taiwan's foreign minister and vice foreign minister from taking part in APEC activities and limited attendance at APEC ministerial meetings to officials in charge of economic affairs.
Nothing in the memoranda touched upon Taipei's attendance at the leaders' summit, which came into being in 1993, some years after the grouping was first created in 1989 in Australia.
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