Taipei and Beijing will hold a fourth round of cross-strait talks in Taichung from Dec. 22 to Dec. 24, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) announced yesterday.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) would lead a delegation from Beijing and arrive in Taichung on Dec. 21 for a five-day visit. He will hold talks with Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) on Dec. 22. The two sides will address four issues and sign four agreements on fishing industry cooperation, quality checks on agricultural products, cross-strait cooperation on standard inspection and certification, and preventing double taxation.
A panel discussion will be held on Dec. 23 to solicit Chinese investment. On Dec. 24, Chen and the delegation will visit Sun Moon Lake and other attractions in the area. The delegation will depart on Dec. 25 for Beijing.
ARATS Deputy Chairman Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) will arrive next Friday to prepare for Chen’s visit, Liu added.
Liu said MAC Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) would meet Chen on Dec. 22, but declined to reveal who else Chen would meet or when he would meet them, including Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強).
While Liu said there would not be any welcome banquet hosted by a political party or business group, he did not give a definite answer on whether Chen would meet any current or former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member. No activities have been arranged for the evenings of Dec. 21, Dec. 23 and Dec. 24.
“We hope the arrangements will be comparatively simple this time around,” Liu said, alluding to protests that occurred during Chen’s visit last year.
Chen was stranded at the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel in Taipei for several hours when he attended a banquet hosted by then-KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) after protesters surrounded the hotel and blocked the exits.
Liu declined to disclose whether Chen would go sightseeing in any county governed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), saying “travel arrangements are not made based on such considerations.”
Lai told lawmakers at the legislature’s International Administration Committee yesterday afternoon that Hu had made it clear that the city would not set up a protest zone and that her council would respect the security arrangements made by the Taichung City Government.
The morning session of the meeting ground to a halt because DPP legislators refused to question Lai over the upcoming cross-strait talks until the MAC announced the details of Chen’s visit to Taichung.
SEF Secretary-General Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) left for Fuzhou, Fujian Province, on Wednesday for a preparatory meeting ahead of the upcoming Chiang-Chen talks to arrange the details, including the dates, location, schedule and agreements the two sides planned to sign during the meeting. Neither side announced the details until 11:30am yesterday.
Citing the example of the financial memorandum of understanding (MOU) recently signed with Beijing, DPP lawmakers said they did not want to be blindsided again by government officials.
Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Sean Chen (陳冲) remained tight-lipped about details of the MOU at the legislature on Nov. 16. A few hours later, he announced unexpectedly that the commission had completed the signing of the MOU with its Chinese counterpart via a document exchange.
“Don’t treat legislators and the Taiwanese public like idiots,” DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said.
KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) agreed and seconded the DPP’s proposal to postpone the meeting until the afternoon.
Huang also asked Lai to express to Chen Taipei’s strong desire to see Beijing remove missiles targeting the country if it wishes to continue negotiating on other issues.
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