Taipei: A Chinese provincial governor
visited Taiwan`s south today, making him the highest-level
mainland official to visit the area since one of Beijing`s
envoys was attacked there in 2008, officials said.
Governor Huang Xiaojing of Fujian province arrived in
Tainan, a city considered a stronghold of the island`s
pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party
(DPP), at the invitation of a local group.
"We wish more people from Fujian and Tainan would
visit each other," he told reporters. Huang led a delegation
that visited Taipei last week.
Despite many locals being fiercely opposed to China,
there were no protests surrounding Huang`s visit.
Hung Yu-feng, a Tainan city councillor affiliated with
the China-friendly Kuomintang party, told AFP that Huang was
the highest-level official from China to visit the city since
an attack on a Beijing envoy in October 2008.
Zhang Mingqing, vice president of China`s
quasi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan
Strait, was pushed to the ground by city councillor Wang
Ting-yu and other opposition supporters while visiting a
temple.
Ties between Taipei and Beijing have improved markedly
since Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang came to power in 2008,
pledging to boost trade links and promising to allow in more
Chinese tourists.
But Ma`s China policy has sparked concern among the
pro-independence camp, who accuse Ma of selling out to
Beijing, an allegation he has flatly denied.
PTI
