SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The 92-year-old businessman who represented Taiwan at this week’s summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in San Francisco expressed hope Friday that the meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping should help to reduce tensions between the two superpowers and in the region.
Morris Chang, the founder of the microchip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, also suggested the meeting could help to promote economic stability and reliable supply chains.
“You don’t have to be a leader to know that if there is no peace, there is no supply chain to start with,” Chang said at a news conference at the close of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Chang said the Biden-Xi meeting was a “good” one, pointing to their agreement to resume high-level military communications.
“It should help reduce the tensions between the U.S. and China, and it should increase stability of Taiwan Strait,” Chang said.
Taiwan, a self-governed island of 23 million people, remains the thorniest issue in U.S.-China relations, as Beijing and Washington clash over its sovereignty. Tensions have flared in recent years as Beijing increases military pressure on the island, which it claims to be part of Chinese territory and vows to seize by force if necessary to achieve national unification.
Washington has a security pact with Taiwan to deter any armed attack from Beijing and has stepped…
