Chinese President Jiang Zemin opened on Saturday a meeting of heads of state and government of countries included in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.

The ceremony, held at the Shanghai International Congress Center, was attended by the presidents of Russia, the USA, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand and several other countries.

They meet annually to informally discuss issues of economic development of the region, as well as international problems. One of the main topics of the current summit is coordination of actions in the fight against international terrorism.

The first day of the summit was marred by a diplomatic scandal between China and Taiwan, which Beijing considers a “rebellious province.” Having declared a boycott of the APEC forum, the entire Taiwanese delegation left Shanghai, RIA Novosti reports .

The departure of the Taiwanese was a direct result of Thursday's altercation between Chinese and Taiwanese ministers. The head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, who chaired the press conference of APEC ministers, refused to give the floor to the Taiwanese Minister of Economy. This was followed by a series of emotional statements from the Taiwanese, who accused Beijing of violating diplomatic norms and rules.

In particular, it was about the fact that China refused to extend an invitation to the current summit to the Vice President of Taiwan. Until now, since 1991, when Taiwan joined APEC, Taipei, taking into account Beijing's wishes, has never sent representatives with a rank higher than a minister to APEC forums.

Let us recall that the APEC Forum was organized in 1989 to promote the development of free trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. Russia joined it in 1998. The APEC Summit acts as an international advisory body and all its decisions are made by consensus.

The Shanghai summit began with a scandal