On Friday, the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei announced that a top U.S. official in charge of APEC relations visited Taiwan to discuss his country’s intentions to host the grouping this year.
Since Beijing sees Taiwan as a province, not a country, it can only join APEC.
Past APEC summits have allowed Taiwan and China, also a member, to interact directly despite military tensions.
In a brief statement, the American Institute in Taiwan said that Matt Murray, a U.S. official, visited Taiwan on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss APEC and the strong U.S.-Taiwan economic partnership with senior officials.
The statement said Murray discussed August high-level meetings in Seattle on disaster preparedness, food security, health, the economy, energy, women and the economy, and small and medium companies.
It did not specify who he met in Taiwan. San Francisco hosts the November leaders’ meeting.
Taiwan presidents do not attend APEC summits, although prominent former officials or corporate executives like Morris Chang, founder of semiconductor company TSMC (2330. TW), attended the Bangkok meeting last year.
Chang briefly addressed semiconductors with Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
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