APEC summit bodes well for cross-strait ties

The Lima Summit will deal some of the world’s most pressing economic issues, including the financial crisis, food and energy security, climate change, and cooperation among members to deepen free trade in the face of rising protectionism.

For Taiwan, the Lima summit marks a milestone in the evolving cross-strait relations. It also promises economic and political opportunities for both Taiwan and the mainland. Lien Chan, a former vice president of the Republic of China and honorary chairman of the ruling Kuomintang, is representing President Ma Ying-jeou to the meeting. Never before since 1993, when former U.S. President Bill Clinton hosted the first leaders’ meeting in Seattle, has Taiwan been able to send such a high-caliber envoy to the meeting.

Taiwan joined APEC in 1991, two years after the founding of the regional group, under the name Chinese Taipei as an economic entity. But the summit meeting has been out of bounds to Taiwan’s top leaders due to the opposition from Beijing for political reasons. In the past, Taiwan’s representatives to the summit were mostly industrial or civic leaders, like Stan Shih of the Acer Group and Morris Chang of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

The fact that Lien Chan is acceptable to Beijing symbolizes a cross-strait detente which he helped usher in. In 2005, Lien, then chairman of the KMT who lost the 2004 presidential election to Chen Shui-bian under suspicious circumstances, made a “journey of peace” to Beijing as the guest of his Chinese communist counterpart Hu Jintao. The historic Lien-Hu meet broke the ice and started a thaw. Ma Ying-jeou’s triumph in the March election, largely on a platform of engagement with Beijing instead of confrontation, has accelerated the thaw, as manifested in the resumption of dialogue and the first visit to Taiwan early this month by China’s envoy Chen Yunlin of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait to sign four economic accords with his counterpart P. K. Chiang of the Strait Exchange Foundation.

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email