Despite being heckled by opposition lawmakers, cross-strait affairs officials yesterday stood by the government's policy on whether to allow a senior Chinese official to visit Taiwan.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators accused the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) of obstructing a planned visit by the director of the China's Taiwan Affairs Office, Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), but council officials said that the government has been carefully dealing with the issue in accordance with the law, and has never sought to block the visit.
Five KMT legislators -- Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆), Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池), Chang Chin-chung (張慶忠) and Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟) -- teamed up yesterday morning to push the council to say whether the government would give Chen a visa.
As soon as KMT lawmakers entered the meeting room, Tseng asked council Vice Chairman Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) and Secretary-General Chan Chih-hung (詹志宏) to answer three questions: First, whether the government would approve Chen's visit; second, if the answer was no, would the government permit the other 65 Chinese visitors to come; and third, whether the council would allow a KMT think tank to serve as a mediator.
Tseng demanded Liu answer "yes" or "no" to the questions, and interrupted his efforts to explain.
After a half-hour-long closed-door meeting, Tseng walked out of the room and announced that the probability that Chen would come to Taiwan had become "zero."
"The Mainland Affairs Council never wants to ease up on cross-strait relations and is not sincere about taking care of Taiwanese farmers," Tseng said. "The government blocks the interest of the people of Taiwan."
In response to the heckling, Liu said the government welcomed KMT officials to express their opinions, and the council was willing to explain government policies in dealing with Chen's case.
"The government is not standing in the way of Chen's visit to Taiwan, and we have been dealing with it according to the law," Liu said. "Taiwan also has been expecting Beijing to respond to the Taiwanese government with sincerity and mutual respect."
"We have also requested that the Straits Exchange Foundation send letters to China three times regarding Chen's visit, but regrettably we have not heard anything yet," Liu said.
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