Nobel laureate Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) is President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) most-preferred envoy to attend the upcoming APEC leaders' summit, Chinese-language media reported yesterday.
Given that APEC organizers have arranged Taiwan's representative to sit next to US President George W. Bush at the summit, Lee should be a top choice to stand for Taiwan considering his image, international reputation and his command of English, the reports said.
Two years ago Chen intended to appoint Lee, the president of Academia Sinica, to represent him at the APEC unofficial leaders' summit, but the arrangement was called off due to China's opposition to Lee's endorsement of Chen during the presidential campaign.
A Presidential Office official noted that China seems to have eased its hostility toward Lee after approving his visit to Beijing.
In June, Lee attended an international meeting in the city after China had refused to grant him a visa over the past two years.
Lee told reporters yesterday that he hasn't been informed about any decision by Chen.
Declining to confirm the information, James Huang (
He said that the decision won't be made until late September when Mexico, this year's host country, sends its envoy to deliver an invitation.
The established practice since 1995 -- due to pressure from Beijing -- is for the host country to dispatch a special envoy to deliver the invitation to Taiwan's president regarding the summit, and then the president declines the offer and designates someone else to attend the meeting.
The 10th APEC leaders' summit will be held on Oct. 26 and Oct. 27 in Los Cabos, Mexico
Taiwan and China were admitted to the 21-member grouping in 1991 under the agreement that Taiwan must take part under the name of "Chinese Taipei."
Since the meeting of APEC leaders in 1993 in Seattle, Beijing has pressured the conference's organizers to refuse Taiwan's president, vice president, premier or vice premier to represent the country at the group's annual summits.
Every year Taiwan is circumspect when selecting a candidate. But this year's selection is crucial after Taiwan was forced to drop out of the meeting last year due to disputes between Taiwan and China over the choice of envoy.
The host country, China, refused to extend an invitation to former vice president Li Yuan-tzu (李元簇), who was Chen's choice for Taiwan's representative at the meeting.
Although China did not specify its reason for refusing last year's envoy, it is widely believed that Beijing objected to Li's status as a former vice president.
Presidential Officeofficials stressed that it is a top priority for Taiwan to have a representative attending this year's meeting.
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