TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s presidential office said on Monday it had appointed a senior advisor to President Lai Ching-te as its envoy to this year’s APEC summit in Peru, one of the few international forums both Taiwan and China take part it.
Lin Hsin-i, chairman of government-backed investment fund Taiwania Capital and also a former economy minister, would represent Taiwan at the summit, the presidential office said in a statement.
Lin, 77, has led the delegation once before, in 2005 in South Korea, and attended APEC twice before that, the presidency said.
He “is familiar with APEC operations and issues”, it added.
Lin briefly exchanged greetings with then-Chinese President Hu Jintao at the 2005 summit. Neither government officially recognised the other.
Chinese-claimed Taiwan participates as “Chinese Taipei” at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and does not send its president to summits given the political sensitivities and China’s objections.
This year’s leader’s summit, which starts on Nov. 15 in Lima, will take place around a month after China staged its latest round of war games around Taiwan it said were a warning to “separatist acts”.
The democratically-elected government in Taipei rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
At last year’s summit in San Francisco, Taiwan’s APEC envoy, the TSMC founder Morris Chang, had informal interactions with U.S. President Joe Biden and discussions with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but none with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry)
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