The latest meeting between Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), the third of its kind, is scheduled for Feb. 7 and Feb. 8 on Kinmen, authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait announced yesterday.
Details of Zhang’s two-day trip have not yet been finalized, but a meeting is to be held between Zhang and Kinmen County Commissioner Chen Fu-hai (陳福海), because issues slated for discussion at the meeting between Wang and Zhang are relevant to Kinmen County, the council said in a statement.
According to Wang’s statement last week, the agenda will include allegations of illegal fishing by Chinese vessels in waters off Kinmen and illegal beach sand mining by Chinese mining boats, large amounts of trash from China washing up on Kinmen beaches and boosting tourism on the island.
Wang has said he would address Taiwan’s concern over China’s plan to open flight route M503, which hugs the median line of the Taiwan Strait and three east-west routes — W121, W122 and W123.
In Beijing, TAO spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) told a press conference that Zhang’s trip would be centered around the theme of stability, improving livelihoods and economic development.
In related news, the semi-
annual meeting of the cross-strait economic cooperation committee, the seventh of its kind, is to take place today in Taipei.
Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Deputy Chairman Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) and Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Yan (高燕) arrived in Taipei yesterday to attend the meeting.
Taiwanese attendees include Straits Exchange Foundation Deputy Secretary-General Shih Hui-fen (施惠芬) and Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Bill Chao (卓士昭).
The committee is mandated under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) to review the status of the implementation of the agreement aimed at facilitating the opening-up of trade in goods and trade in services; setting up a dispute-settlement mechanism; and boosting bilateral investment and cooperation over customs controls and industrial development.
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