Beijing welcomes Taiwan to join infrastructure bank under ‘appropriate title’
Beijing says Taipei sent letter of intent before Tuesday’s deadline for founding member applications to AIIB, but gives no further details
Mainland China would welcome Taiwan to join the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank under an appropriate title, officials said on Wednesday.
The State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) received a letter of intent from Taiwan before Tuesday’s deadline for founding membership and has transferred the letter to the multilateral interim secretariat for the AIIB, spokesman Ma Xiaoguang was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
“We welcome Taiwan to participate under an appropriate name,” Ma said, without indicating what title Taipei should use and whether the island would be accepted as a founding member.
Taiwan’s finance ministry sent the letter of intent to become a founding member to AIIB through the communication channel between TAO and its Taiwanese counterpart, the Mainland Affairs Council, on Tuesday. The letter does not specify which title Taiwan would use.
Mainland’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, however, said Taiwan’s application “should avoid giving rise to the issues of ‘two Chinas,’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan’,” Xinhua reported.
So far 48 countries and regions have applied for founding membership, of which 30 have been accepted.