Leading Taiwanese business tycoon Morris Chang attended this year’s APEC summit on behalf of President Tsai Ing-wen last Friday. Chang is the founder of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest chipmaker by market capitalization.

This year’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit kicked off in a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme for the summit was “Optimizing Human Potential Towards a Resilient Future of Shared Prosperity.” President Tsai said that Chang has experience in promoting cooperation between Taiwan and other APEC member countries from previous years’ APEC summits. As a result, she said that Chang is the best person to attend this year’s event.

This is the fourth time that Chang has represented Taiwan at an APEC summit, and the third time he has attended on behalf of President Tsai. Back in 2006, Chang attended that year’s summit in Vietnam, representing then-president Chen Shui-bian. Taiwan’s head of state has been barred from attending APEC summit meetings due to pressure from China.