Beijing's top official on cross-Straits affairs was forced to
cancel a planned visit to Taiwan yesterday, due to Taipei's refusal
to allow him to attend an agricultural forum.
The decision came as the event's organizers yesterday decided to
relocate its venue from Taipei to a mainland city.
This is the second time Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work
Office of the CPC Central Committee, has been spurned by Taiwan's
ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration.
He had accepted an invitation from Taiwan's opposition
Kuomintang (KMT) to attend the cross-Straits agricultural forum,
which is scheduled to run on October 22 and 23.
If approved, Chen, also head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the
State Council, would have become the highest-ranking mainland
official to visit the island since 1949.
"It has obviously become impossible for the agricultural forum
to be held in Taipei as scheduled despite our utmost efforts," said
Tseng Yung-chuan, director of the KMT's central policy committee,
apparently referring to the DPP administration's refusal to approve
Chen's visit. "We deeply regret this."
Following a 2-hour meeting with Chen yesterday afternoon, Tseng
said both sides agreed to move the agricultural forum to the
mainland upon the advice of the KMT.
"It will be held in mid- or late October in the mainland," he
told a press briefing.
"But the exact date and venue for the event will be decided
through further consultation" between the KMT and the Taiwan
Affairs Office.
Chen expressed his disappointment with the DPP administration's
refusal to allow him to visit the island, which he said was aimed
at helping promote Taiwan's agricultural development.
"I myself have been really longing for a chance to go (to
Taiwan), but it seems now we have met with some difficulty," he
told reporters.
"As we all have seen...it is time for us to reconsider."
Tseng blamed the change mainly on the DPP administration's
deliberate and indefinite delay in approving Chen's planned
visit.
The KMT officially filed the application for the visit of Chen
with the island's "immigration office" on August 20.
But the "mainland affairs council," the island's top policy body
concerning the mainland, asked for government talks with Beijing to
arrange Chen's visit.
Beijing, however, has refused to negotiate with the
pro-independence DPP unless it embraces the one-China principle
that both Taiwan and the mainland belong to the same China.
In a statement issued late last night, the Taiwan Affairs Office
also accused the Taiwan authorities of "unreasonably setting
hurdles to foil the plan to hold the forum in Taipei."
"We regret that the Taiwan authorities have persistently raised
various political conditions to delay and block such an exchange
that is conducive to improving and developing cross-Straits
relations," the statement said.
The first such request from the KMT concerning Chen's visit last
December was also turned down.
The upcoming forum is the second one jointly held by the KMT and
CPC, with the last one hosted in Beijing in April to focus on
cross-Straits economy and trade.
(China Daily September 8, 2006)