A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation is slated to depart for China on Monday to pay homage to KMT patriarch Sun Yat-sen (
The KMT confirmed yesterday that former deputy legislative speaker and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) heavyweight Chiang Pin-kun (
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
It is believed that the delegation might also have plans to visit Beijing, as the trip comes on the heels of Beijing's recent passage of the "Anti-Secession" Law, legislation that China believes authorizes the use of "non-peaceful means" against Taiwan. The delegation's departure will also come just two days after a March 26 rally protesting the Anti-Secession Law.
KMT spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen (
She said that KMT spokesman Chang Jung-kung (
Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) also said yesterday that it had not been in contact with the KMT regarding the visit, according to a report in Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po.
An unnamed TAO official was quoted in the report as saying that the office had learned of the trip from media reports only.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the government agency responsible for the nation's China policy, has refrained from commenting on the KMT's trip. Following the passage of the Anti-Secession Law, the council has said on several occasions that it would not impose any restrictions on those wishing to travel to China, but added that anyone who visits China does so at their own risk.
While the KMT has made clear that the main purpose of its impending trip is to mark the death of Sun, the party has in the past sent delegations to China to discuss state affairs.
The KMT had sent a delegation to Beijing and met with TAO officials just as cross-strait dialogue on Lunar New Year charter flights got underway.
At the time, while a trip to China by the government-authorized Taipei Airlines Association had been shrouded in secrecy, the KMT delegation was given a high profile welcome.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
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