The sovereign members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) will properly handle Chinese Taipei's participation in APEC meetings on the principle of the one-China policy, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Thursday.

"All sovereign members of the APEC abide by the one-China principle and hope to handle problems based on this principle, as well as relevant memoranda of understanding and regulations," Qin said in response to a question on Chinese Taipei's participation in ongoing APEC meetings.

APEC began its annual forum, called the 16th APEC Leaders' Week, in the Peruvian capital of Lima on Sunday. The event includes an annual ministerial meeting on Nov. 19-20, a business summit on Nov. 20-22 and the 16th Economic Leaders' Meeting on Nov. 22-23.

"No matter how the situation across the Taiwan Strait changes, the fact that there is only one China in the world will never change," he added.

Meanwhile, Qin said: "We understand Taiwan people's stances over the participation in international activities."

Both sides of the Taiwan Strait belonged to one and the same Chinese nation, he said, noting that one of the key tasks for China's diplomacy was to serve the interests of all Chinese people.

"Under the precondition of the one-China principle, we are ready to seriously research issues concerning the interests of Taiwan people and work with Taiwan to create conditions for seeking proper settlement for these issues through cross-Strait consultation," Qin said.

Qin stressed that the basic position was that there was only one China in the world. "We firmly oppose the claims of 'two Chinas' or 'one China, one Taiwan'," he noted.

Established in 1989, APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, China's Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2008)