US Senior Official for APEC Casey Mace is visiting Taiwan from yesterday to today to support the nation’s international participation, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said.
During the two-day stay, Mace, who also heads the Office of Economic Policy in the US Department of State’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, would hold meetings with senior officials and industry leaders, the AIT said in a news release.
He would discuss “issues related to APEC, advance U.S.- Taiwan economic cooperation, and show support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community, with a focus on supply chain resilience, AI [artificial intelligence], and the digital economy,” it said.
Photo: Cheng I-hwa, Bloomberg
Mace, a career diplomat with more than 23 years at the US Department of State focusing primarily on Indo-Pacific relations, has held his current post since August last year.
Launched in 1989, APEC is an intergovernmental forum for 21 member economies promoting free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Taiwan joined APEC in 1991 under the name “Chinese Taipei.”
Mace’s visit to Taiwan comes as China is preparing to host this year’s APEC meetings in November in Shenzhen.
Taipei has previously expressed concerns over its participation in this year’s APEC meetings after the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last year that it would fulfill its obligations as host as long as Taipei complies with the “one China” principle.
Beijing’s “one China” principle asserts that Taiwan is part of China, and that there is only one legitimate and sovereign state representing all of China, a claim repeatedly rejected by Taiwan.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元), Taiwan’s APEC senior official, said earlier this year that Taiwan’s delegation had visited Shenzhen for an APEC-related event in late last year and did not receive any treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty.
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