Last night, Ambassador Lee See-young, Assistant Minister of the Korean MFA, told me that he would announce later today (28 August) at the APEC senior officials' meeting currently held in Kyongju, Korea, that consensus had been reached on the admission of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong into APEC. As chairman of the next APEC ministerial meeting, the Korean Government would invite delegations of the three economies to attend that meeting to be held in Seoul in November where their admission would be formalised. A press statement would be issued in Kyongju on this development later today.
2.
This is encouraging news against the APEC ministerial decision that the three economies should join APEC simultaneously. It follows the final round of talks at Seoul last week, where Korean officials shuttled among the Chinese, Taiwanese and my delegations (stationed in separate rooms in the same hotel) and knocked out a compromise position.
3.
There were two sticking points for the Chinese and Taiwanese: designation and representation of the Taiwanese delegation at APEC. On designation, the Korean compromise was "Chinese Taipei" (against various Taiwanese proposals implying sovereignty). On representation, the compromise was that the Taiwanese delegation to APEC should be led by any Taiwanese official other than their Foreign Minister or Vice-Foreign Minister, but Taiwanese MFA officials at Director-General and below might attend as members of the Taiwanese delegation and use their official titles (against the Chinese position that no Taiwanese MFA officials should be allowed at APEC). Both China and Taiwan accepted the compromise at the eleventh hour shortly before the Kyongju meeting. Neither of
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