Taiwan Official Has Rare Run-In With Chinese President Xi Jinping At The Summit Last Week In Thailand

TSMC founder Morris Chang (left) met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Apec summit in Thailand last week. PHOTOS: REUTERS  

Straits Times: TSMC founder says congratulating China’s Xi on party congress was ‘personal’ 

TAIPEI - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co founder Morris Chang said the congratulations he offered Chinese President Xi Jinping about the congress that his ruling Communist Party recently held were his own “personal” view. 

“Taiwan’s Presidential Office told me beforehand that if there was an opportunity, there was no need to avoid meeting or greeting him,” Mr Chang said on Monday at a press conference in Taipei held to brief journalists on his role as the island’s envoy to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit last week in Thailand. 

“I later congratulated Xi on the success of the 20th party congress and talked about my own health condition, which were all my personal ideas,” Mr Chang said, when asked if the government in Taipei had asked him to convey the sentiments.  

Read more ....  

Update: Taiwan officials have rare run-in with Xi Jinping at Asia talks (FOX News) 

Update #2: Taiwanese envoy explains why he congratulated China’s Xi (RT)  

WNU Editor: Taiwan's business elite and China's political class have always been talking and meeting each other. This is how China respects its policy of not recognizing Taiwan, but finds a way to talk to them in another way. That is why in this meeting with President Xi, Morris Chang made it very clear that this was a personal meeting, not an official one. 

I saw these type of meetings first hand numerous times in Fujian when I was working there in the 1980s. They were always talking to each other, and it was made easier not only because of business, but also due to family ties between Fujian province and Taiwan (they both face each other cross the Taiwan Strait).