That’s the message Stan Shih, Taipei-based Acer Inc.’s former chairman, will bring to China’s President Hu Jintao when they meet at the APEC leaders meeting tomorrow in Sydney. Both China and Taiwan are members of APEC.

“I will tell President Hu that we have different perspectives, but that we can find common ground as long as we sit down and sincerely express ourselves,” said Shih, who founded the world’s fourth-largest computer maker and is representing Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian this year at APEC.

Taiwan, which goes by the formal name of the Republic of China, split from China at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 and was a member of the United Nations until 1971, when China took its seat. Taiwan’s Chen angered China by proposing a referendum on whether the island should rejoin the U.N. under the name Taiwan.

In meetings Thursday in Sydney with U.S. President George W. Bush, China’s President Hu said the coming two years are particularly “sensitive” times and that the U.S. must not give the wrong signal to Taiwan “independence forces.” Bush said the U.S. also “objects’ to the referendum.

Chen has been barred from annual APEC summits because of opposition from China, which considers Taiwan its territory. Last year, Morris Chang, the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest maker of custom chips, attended the meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam.

‘Sovereign state’

“Taiwan is a sovereign state,” Shih said. “The referendum is a democratic expression.” Taiwan’s president has said he will continue with his plans to hold the referendum during the coming presidential elections in March, rejecting criticism from the U.S.

The referendum is the “internal affair of Taiwan,” the island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in an e-mailed statement on Aug. 28. The planned vote doesn’t break Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian’s promise of not changing the island’s official name, “nor are we changing the status quo,” the ministry said.

‘Oppose referendum’

The ministry said it was responding to John Negroponte, U.S. deputy secretary of state, who said in an Aug. 27 interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV: “We oppose the notion of that kind of a referendum because we see that as a step towards the declaration — towards a declaration of independence of Taiwan, towards an alteration of the status quo.” The state department published the interview on its Web site.

Taiwan started an international campaign for observer status in the U.N. under its official name of the Republic of China in 1993.

The U.N. has turned down the island’s application each year because of opposition from China, which claims the island as its territory and opposes any international acceptance of Taiwan as a nation.

Chen last month twice re-applied to join the U.N., for the first time under the name of Taiwan. The world body rejected both bids, citing adherence to the “one China” principle.

Subscribe to The China Post and save.  Click hereSharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 800 characters max

Receive China Post promos

Respond to this email