CHINA'S TIES WITH TAIWAN THAW
Incoming Taiwanese Vice-President Siew and Chinese President Hu make history with a chat at the Boao Forum
Dexter Roberts
Business Week, April 14, 2008
This year's Boao Forum for Asia, China's annual Davos-like meeting held on the tropical resort island of Hainan, featured plenty of pageantry. Under the swaying coconut trees, Chinese leaders over the weekend hosted the prime ministers of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Australia and the presidents of Mongolia, Tanzania, Sweden, and Chile. Even the king of the Pacific island nation of Tonga was there and got the full diplomatic treatment of a military band and guard of honor in the nearby resort town of Sanya. Meanwhile, corporate chieftains from companies including Volvo, CNOOC, and Alibaba mingled over cocktails in elaborate evening banquets with Chinese opera performances.
But all of that was overshadowed by the presence of 67-year-old Vincent Siew, a Taiwanese politician who hasn't even assumed office yet. Siew, who becomes vice-president under Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou on May 20, got less than half an hour of rushed talks on Apr. 12 with China's President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the Boao Forum. Still, with those 20 minutes Siew stole the show from the many other dignitaries, with crowds of journalists and diplomatic and corporate delegates mobbing him everywhere the career politician went.
That's because the meeting between Siew and Hu (and a follow-up session a day later with China's newly appointed Commerce Minister) was truly a diplomatic breakthrough. Indeed, it was the highest-level exchange between leaders from China and Taiwan in the almost 60 years since Siew's Kuomintang (KMT) predecessors fled to Taiwan in 1949. And the contact occurred even while the two sides technically remain at war, with Beijing pointing more than 1,000 missiles at Taipei and the rest of the island. The meeting "produced great, highly satisfactory results," said a smiling Siew before leaving Hainan for Taipei on Apr. 13. "It's a great success."
(…) [artículo aquí]
Incoming Taiwanese Vice-President Siew and Chinese President Hu make history with a chat at the Boao Forum
Dexter Roberts
Business Week, April 14, 2008
This year's Boao Forum for Asia, China's annual Davos-like meeting held on the tropical resort island of Hainan, featured plenty of pageantry. Under the swaying coconut trees, Chinese leaders over the weekend hosted the prime ministers of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Australia and the presidents of Mongolia, Tanzania, Sweden, and Chile. Even the king of the Pacific island nation of Tonga was there and got the full diplomatic treatment of a military band and guard of honor in the nearby resort town of Sanya. Meanwhile, corporate chieftains from companies including Volvo, CNOOC, and Alibaba mingled over cocktails in elaborate evening banquets with Chinese opera performances.
But all of that was overshadowed by the presence of 67-year-old Vincent Siew, a Taiwanese politician who hasn't even assumed office yet. Siew, who becomes vice-president under Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou on May 20, got less than half an hour of rushed talks on Apr. 12 with China's President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the Boao Forum. Still, with those 20 minutes Siew stole the show from the many other dignitaries, with crowds of journalists and diplomatic and corporate delegates mobbing him everywhere the career politician went.
That's because the meeting between Siew and Hu (and a follow-up session a day later with China's newly appointed Commerce Minister) was truly a diplomatic breakthrough. Indeed, it was the highest-level exchange between leaders from China and Taiwan in the almost 60 years since Siew's Kuomintang (KMT) predecessors fled to Taiwan in 1949. And the contact occurred even while the two sides technically remain at war, with Beijing pointing more than 1,000 missiles at Taipei and the rest of the island. The meeting "produced great, highly satisfactory results," said a smiling Siew before leaving Hainan for Taipei on Apr. 13. "It's a great success."
(…) [artículo aquí]
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