Xi seeks fresh diplomatic inroads at APEC summit
In a change of pace, China’s president had interactions with the US Veep and Taiwan’s representative at the meeting in Bangkok
BANGKOK: Taiwan’s representative to APEC said on Saturday he had a brief but “happy” chat with Xi Jinping at a summit in Bangkok, a rare high-level interaction, while US vice-president Kamala Harris spoke briefly with the Chinese president in another step toward keeping lines of communication open between the two biggest economies.
APEC is one of the few international organisations Chineseclaimed Taiwan is a member of, as Beijing - which views it as a Chinese province and not a country - blocks its participation at most others.
Tensions between Taipei and Beijing have risen since China staged war games near the democratically-governed island in August after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited. Speaking to reporters in Bangkok, Morris
Chang, also the founder of Taiwanese chip giant TSMC, said he had talked to Xi on Friday.
“We asked after each, and I congratulated him on the success of the Communist Party’s 20th Congress,” Chang said, referring to last month’s event in
Beijing at which Xi secured an unprecedented third term in office.
“It was a very happy, polite interaction,” he added, but said tensions across the Taiwan Strait were not discussed.
APEC has traditionally been one the few forums where China and Taiwan talk, even if just in passing for pleasantries.
Separately, Harris and Xi exchanged remarks on Saturday while heading into a closed-door meeting at summit.
“I greeted President Xi before the APEC Leaders Retreat,” Harris wrote on Twitter. “I noted a key message that President Biden emphasized in his November 14 meeting with President Xi: we must maintain open lines of communication to responsibly manage the competition between our countries.”
Their exchange closely echoed Biden’s comment to Xi at a meeting between the two leaders earlier in the week about China and the US keeping lines of communication open.