Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) special emissary to APEC, says he wants to speak with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) about cross-strait issues.
"When I have the opportunity to talk to Hu, I may first congratulate him on the launch of China's first space flight a couple days ago," said Lee, referring to China's first manned space flight launched last Wednesday. The flight made China only the third nation, after the former Soviet Union and the US, to put a man into space.
"And if I have more time, I may talk about cross-strait issues with him and I hope that both sides of the Taiwan Strait will sit down and talk, so that misunderstandings or controversies such as the 1992 consensus can be dealt with. And then we can talk about issues of mutual concern," Lee said.
Lee made the remarks at a press conference held at Queen Sirikit Convention Center a few hours after his arrival here yesterday.
The press conference, packed with foreign and Taiwanese media, was conducted in both English and Chinese Mandarin.
Lee was asked to compare Hu with with China's former president, Jiang Zemin (江澤民), with whom who Lee had a brief interchange during last year's APEC meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Lee, noting that Hu is younger than him while Chiang was older than him, said that he had "personally witnessed the transition from the older generation to the younger generation."
Noting that he has not yet met with Hu in person but only learned about him from media coverage, Lee said that he look forward to having a chance to meet with Hu and said he was hopeful.
"When you meet different people you have different expectations, and this year I wish that new expectation will perhaps create new opportunities," Lee said.
"And I do hope that Chairman Hu and President Chen will have the opportunity to meet with each other to talk about cross-strait issues in the future," Lee added.
Stressing that misunderstandings are the results of a lack of exchanges and dialogue, Lee also called on Beijing to open dialogue with Taipei.
Lee also said that if he had a chance to meet with US. President George W. Bush, "I may first of all convey to him greetings from President Chen and then we may discuss East Asia's economic development. Depending on the situation, if we have more time, we may talk more about trade with the US."
Lee said that Chen did not give him any specific or concrete directions on how to deal with items being discussed during the forum.
"[The president] fully trusts our delegation and the decisions can be made by our delegation," Lee said.
Lee's arrived yesterday and received a respectful welcome from the Thai-government, the host of this year's APEC meeting.
A motorcade of 10 cars was dispatched by the Thai government to pick up Lee from the Bangkok International Airport. Lee was welcomed by Thai Minister of Information, Communication and Technology Surapong Surbwonglee and scores of Taiwanese officials, including Taipei's Representative to Thailand Paul Cheng (鄭博久).
To ensure the safety of Lee and the Taiwanese delegation, a BELL206 helicopter accompanied Lee's motorcade all the way from the airport to Dusit Thani Hotel, where Lee and members of the Taiwan delegation are staying.
A score of Thai bodyguards have also been dispatched by Bangkok to ensure Lee's safety while attending the informal APEC Economic Leaders Meeting on behalf of Chen.
More than 200 eager Thailand-based Taiwanese businesspeople gathered at the hotel to welcome the arrival of Lee and his delegation.
The presence of these businesspeople was significant, as many of them had decided to welcome Lee instead of attending a welcoming banquet for Hu.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS