President Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday announced that she has chosen Morris Chang, the founder of TSMC, to represent Taiwan at an informal meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) on Friday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is the biggest contract chipmaker in the world.
Chang has represented Taiwan and the president at several APEC summits in the past. Taiwan’s presidents have not been able to attend the summits due to pressure from China.
The informal meeting on Friday is aimed at discussing issues concerning the COVID-19 pandemic in the Asia Pacific region. Tsai is calling for Chang to bring up two important points at the meeting. One is that the APEC should make every effort to help member countries have access to COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible. Tsai also wants to highlight that, amidst the challenges of the pandemic, APEC members should work together to uphold the spirit of free trade to contribute to global economic recovery.
The formal annual APEC summit will be held virtually in November in New Zealand this year.