The announcement was made by Xi Jinping at the Lima summit. The Asia Pacific Economic Forum is one of the few international organizations where both Beijing and Taipei are present. Xi Jinping intends to establish himself as the axis of trade exchanges in the Pacific in the face of the threat of protectionism posed by Trump’s return.
Lima (/Agencies) – The People’s Republic of China will once again host the APEC summit in 2026, the economic cooperation organization that brings together 21 countries from Asia, America and Oceania with coasts on the Pacific Ocean. It was announced on November 16 by Chinese President Xi Jinping himself in his speech during the annual meeting that ended yesterday in Lima, Peru, and the news was officially confirmed in the Machu Picchu Declaration that was released at the end of the work. Therefore, after the 2025 edition – already set in Gyeongju, South Korea -, for the third time China will host this summit, after the previous ones in 2001 (on the eve of the entry of the People’s Republic into the WTO). and 2014. Xi was especially interested in this decision with the purpose of relaunching Beijing’s ambitions for trade between the two shores of the Pacific.
However, to obtain the necessary consensus of all member countries, China had to offer new guarantees about the participation of the Taiwanese delegation, following increasingly harsh threats against members of its government and the entry into force in June in the People’s Republic of new legal “guidelines” that even threaten the “irreducible” supporters of the independence of the “rebel island” with the death penalty. Taiwan, in fact, is one of the member countries of APEC, which it joined in 1991 precisely together with the People’s Republic of China. In the name of the “one China policy”, the island participates in the summit as “Chinese Taipei”. And, always by imposition from Beijing, it is never represented by the president but by a delegate, who in recent years has been Morris Chang, the founder of TMSC (the Taipei company that is the world giant in the production of semiconductors); This year, President William Lai Ching-te sent another businessman, Lin Hsin-i, to Lima.
As an economic forum, APEC is one of the few international spaces in which both the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan participate and where officials from both sides can interact, even if only to exchange formalities. Lin Hsin-i said he had addressed an unspecified greeting to Chinese President Xi Jinping, without shaking his hand or exchanging words.
Taipei national security sources told local media that when the allocation to China was discussed at the APEC dialogue table, “several delegations raised concerns about equal treatment of member countries and the protection of personal safety.” “. Issues on which Beijing would have given guarantees, and that is why Taiwan should also be present at the Chinese summit.
China’s push to host the largest Pacific free trade forum must also be considered in the context of the clash over tariffs with the United States and Europe, and new tensions linked to the further protectionist tightening that Donald Trump promised during the campaign. electoral. On the sidelines of the APEC summit, Xi Jinping and outgoing President Joe Biden spoke in Lima about relations between Washington and Beijing in their latest bilateral meeting. “China is willing to work with the new US administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences,” Xi said during the colloquium.
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