Peru Rejects Former Taiwan Vice President Chen Chien-jen as APEC Envoy
Peru has declined to allow Taiwan's former Vice President and Premier Chen Chien-jen to represent Taiwan at this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, asking for an envoy with a less "political background," apparently under pressure from China. There's speculation that Stan Shih, founder of computer company Acer, will be the next choice.
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00:00APEC host Peru has rejected Taiwan's first pick for its envoy to this year's summit.
00:06Taiwan chose former Vice President Chen Jien-ren to represent the country at talks there, but
00:11he was rejected by Peru, Taiwan says, due to pressure from China.
00:16Rhys Ayers is in Taipei with more details.
00:18Rhys, what are Peruvian officials saying?
00:22Well, Joyce, hosts Peru have said that they would prefer an envoy without a political
00:29background, as decisions made by APEC are reached by consensus by all of the member
00:35states, this being an Asia-Pacific forum, one of those members, of course, being China.
00:41It's safe to say, and some sources do say, that Chen Jien-ren was too political a pick
00:48for China's liking.
00:50Chen is indeed a political figure in Taiwan.
00:52He served as the Vice President under the Tsai administration from 2016 to 2020, and
00:58then as the Premier until this year.
01:03And Lai Ching-de originally picked Chen for the APEC representative because of his background
01:09in public health and also in biotech.
01:13It's safe to say that Chen is close to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the
01:18Lai administration, both of whom China holds open disdain for, which is likely why they've
01:25vetoed this pick.
01:29Sir Rhys, who will Taiwan be sending to APEC instead?
01:35Well, there's still some speculation about who that might be.
01:39Before Chen, there was speculation that it would be the 93-year-old founder of TSMC,
01:45Maurice Zheng, who attended the previous six APEC meetings.
01:50But now, some sources are saying that the most likely candidate is Stan Shi.
01:55Shi is another global tech leader.
01:59He was the founder of Acer, which is a huge Taiwanese tech company.
02:03They make hardware and other electronics, gaming computers, for example.
02:09He started that organization in the 70s with just US$30,000 capital.
02:15And he attended APEC in Australia back in 2007.
02:20So all of these things coming together make him quite a suitable replacement to attend
02:25APEC and one that other global leaders are likely going to be excited about the prospect
02:31of meeting with an entrepreneur and a global tech leader like Shi.