TAIWAN ECONOMIC MINISTER WANG CHIH-KANG WALKS PAST MODELS OF CHINA'S LONG MARCH ROCKETS, 1998-01-21 (photo)

Taiwan economic minister Wang Chih-kang (C) and Koo Chen-fu (L), chairman of a semiofficial Taiwan organisation responsible for ties with arch rival communist China, walk past models of China's Long March rockets January 21 on the opening day of a rare international conference in Taiwan. The APEC Technomart, organised by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, has attracted some 3,000 government officials and high-tech business leaders from the 17 APEC economies -- including a 220-strong delegation from mainland China. Beijing, which has regarded Taiwan as a renegade province since a 1949 civil war split, does not recognise the island's exiled Republic of China government. TAIWAN APEC