Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen appoints a pro-China politician to become an APEC representative. (Photo : Getty Images)
On Wednesday, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen appointed James Soong to represent her at a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders next month. Soong is known to be a pro-China politician.
Soong is the leader of the People First Party, a splinter group of the China-friendly opposition Nationalists, and will attend the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) set for mid-November in Peru.
In a statement, the Taiwanese president said, "Soong's rich academic background, experience and contacts will enable him to precisely convey to the international community the all-around status of our development."
Soong is criticized by the Taiwanese members of parliament for his pro-China stance. Tsai's approval ratings have been low due to her inability to recover the economy and revive tourism in the country.
Tsai has also been conservative in pushing for a stronger stance against China, and critics said that she has not pursued the country's independence from the mainland.
Previous Taiwanese administrations have tried to unify Taiwan and China and tried to foster trade liberalization agreements. The economic cooperation free trade agreement (E.C.F.A.) was a historic undertaking between the two countries and was signed a few years ago.
Many criticized the E.C.F.A. because of fears of China manipulating the market. However many Taiwanese-based companies heavily rely on the mainland's manufacturing sector.
According to Ralph Jennings, a reporter and long-time observer of Chinese-Taiwanese relations, "China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and sees dialogue as a way to push for unification despite polls showing most Taiwanese prefer to keep a distance."
The appointment of the pro-China APEC representative might indicate Tsai's move to be diplomatic with China, according to an analyst.
Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center think tank in Honolulu, said, "The next question that arises is whether Beijing can tolerate an indefinite stagnation of cross-Strait relations, simply a lack of what Beijing would perceive as a movement toward unification. Tsai has been, and will likely continue to be, more cautious about moving toward independence than Beijing expected."
