Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200810/20081030/article_378734.htm
Official expresses hope for a safe Taiwan trip
Created: 2008-10-30
A CHINESE mainland official said yesterday the mainland hopes its chief negotiator's upcoming visit to Taiwan will be safe and smooth.
The mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin will head a delegation to Taiwan from November 3 to 7.
Leaders of the ARATS and Taiwan's Strait Exchange Foundation will meet to discuss cross-strait shipping, air transport, postal services, food safety and financial cooperation.
"Arrangements for the upcoming meeting should follow routines so that they are acceptable and convenient to both sides," Yang Yi, a State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman, said.
Yang said the mainland believes that cross-strait negotiations should tackle economic problems first.
"As for the issues left over from the past and political issues, we believe the two sides should work together to create conditions and gradually solve them through negotiation," he said.
Yang did not disclose whether Chen would accompany the two pandas that mainland had promised to donate to Taiwan.
"Departments concerned are making active preparations and we hope Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan can meet their Taiwan compatriots soon," he said.
The four-year-old pandas are at a panda breeding base in Sichuan Province.
The mainland announced in May 2005 that it would donate two giant pandas to Taiwan to demonstrate goodwill. But their departure has been delayed for more than three years.
Chen's trip to Taiwan was preceded by an incident in which ARATS deputy chief Zhang Mingqing was jostled by a crowd in Taiwan.
Zhang, who was visiting at the invitation of the National Taiwan University of the Arts as dean of journalism at Xiamen University, was shoved to the ground by a mob allegedly incited by Wang Ting-yu, a local lawmaker from Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party.
The ARATS has condemned the violence and asked Taiwan to prevent such incidents in future.
Asked to comment on reports that law maker Wang was under threat of violence to apologize, Yang said that story was "a lie full of loopholes and contradictions".
Taiwan media reported that Wang claimed that he had been threatened at gunpoint by a local businessman Huang Ju-yi and told to apologize in public for the incident.
The mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin will head a delegation to Taiwan from November 3 to 7.
Leaders of the ARATS and Taiwan's Strait Exchange Foundation will meet to discuss cross-strait shipping, air transport, postal services, food safety and financial cooperation.
"Arrangements for the upcoming meeting should follow routines so that they are acceptable and convenient to both sides," Yang Yi, a State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman, said.
Yang said the mainland believes that cross-strait negotiations should tackle economic problems first.
"As for the issues left over from the past and political issues, we believe the two sides should work together to create conditions and gradually solve them through negotiation," he said.
Yang did not disclose whether Chen would accompany the two pandas that mainland had promised to donate to Taiwan.
"Departments concerned are making active preparations and we hope Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan can meet their Taiwan compatriots soon," he said.
The four-year-old pandas are at a panda breeding base in Sichuan Province.
The mainland announced in May 2005 that it would donate two giant pandas to Taiwan to demonstrate goodwill. But their departure has been delayed for more than three years.
Chen's trip to Taiwan was preceded by an incident in which ARATS deputy chief Zhang Mingqing was jostled by a crowd in Taiwan.
Zhang, who was visiting at the invitation of the National Taiwan University of the Arts as dean of journalism at Xiamen University, was shoved to the ground by a mob allegedly incited by Wang Ting-yu, a local lawmaker from Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party.
The ARATS has condemned the violence and asked Taiwan to prevent such incidents in future.
Asked to comment on reports that law maker Wang was under threat of violence to apologize, Yang said that story was "a lie full of loopholes and contradictions".
Taiwan media reported that Wang claimed that he had been threatened at gunpoint by a local businessman Huang Ju-yi and told to apologize in public for the incident.
Xinhua
Copyright © 2001-2009 Shanghai Daily Publishing House