President of Taiwan says island participates “on an equal footing” in APEC

O President of Taiwan said today that the island will participate “on an equal footing” at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) summit next week in Shenzhen.

“APEC is the most important multilateral mechanism of economic and trade cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, and all its members interact on an equal footing. Taiwan participates in this year’s meeting also under this principle,” said William Lai Ching-te.

The country will send as representative, the founder and current honorary president of technology Acer, 81-year-old Stan Shih.

William Lai recalled that Stan Shih has already served as Taiwanese representative at the APEC summit in Sydney in 2007, when he demonstrated the island’s willingness to “contribute to the international community.”.

Lai stressed that, as a member of APEC, Taiwan “has always actively participated in its issues and made its contribution”.

The Taiwanese leader described the island as an “ indispensable partner for innovation in artificial intelligence [IA] and digital transformation worldwide”, given its “fundamental role” in the semiconductor supply chain.

“ Through the APEC platform, Taiwan will continue to boost global technological cooperation and foster innovation exchange while actively working to build a resilient and reliable AI technology supply chain,” he said.

In this context, and given the challenges that geopolitics, energy and the restructuring of supply chains impose on the world economy, “Taiwan will remain a stable and reliable force in the Asia-Pacific region,” Lai said.

“Taiwan will deepen cooperation and exchanges with its key partners to maintain regional prosperity and stability together, and to accelerate the integration and economic and trade development of the region,” he said.

Taiwan has participated in APEC since 1991 but does not send its presidents to the summits of forum leaders due to China's opposition, which in recent years has intensified the diplomatic pressure campaign to restrict the island's international participation.

The Taiwanese government denounced in 2025 Beijing’s imposition of “additional conditions” on Taiwan’s presence at the APEC summit in Shenzhen, an event in which the participation of US presidents, Donald Trump, and Russia, Vladimir Putin is also planned.

Taiwan’s presidential spokesman, Karen Kuo, today applauded the joint statement by the G7 Foreign Ministers, who expressed opposition to “any unilateral attempt to change the status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, namely through force or coercion, or threat.

In a statement published on Wednesday, after a two-day meeting in Paris, Foreign Ministers from the seven richest countries – the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada – highlighted the importance of “keeping peace and stability” in the Strait.

Taiwan’s presidential spokesman Karen Kuo today stressed in a statement that peace and stability in this area and throughout the Indo-Pacific region “are a central issue” for global security and prosperity.

“Taiwan deeply appreciates that France, which holds the rotating G7 presidency, the other member countries and the European Union continue to show concern about the situation in the Strait, that they recognise the challenges that authoritarian expansion poses to regional security and freedom of navigation, and that they value Taiwan’s concrete contributions to the international community,” he said.