Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) was scheduled to visit Beijing yesterday to thank Taiwanese businesspeople based there for their support in the Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections.
Chiang, who in his capacity as the Straits Exchange Foundation chairman is Taiwan’s top negotiator with China, was expected to arrive in Beijing last night and was scheduled to attend a musical event today to thank Taiwanese business representatives there on behalf of the KMT.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) defeated Democratic Progressive Party candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) by a 6 percent margin. He was apparently helped by the large number of China-based businesspeople who returned home to vote.
Many of them are believed to have voted for Ma because of his policies supporting closer relations between Taiwan and China.
Chiang has already visited Taiwanese businesspeople in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, and Nanjing, on similar trips to thank them for their support.
Chiang is the second senior party official to visit Beijing since the election, after former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) met with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) late last month.
During his five-day stay in the Chinese capital, Chiang is expected to meet with Chinese officials responsible for Taiwan-related affairs, including Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) and Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Wang Yi (王毅).
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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