Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said on Friday that the protests that China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) encountered during his trip to Taiwan this past week should not affect Chinese tourists' interest in making leisure trips to Taiwan.
“Chen Yunlin was not visiting Taiwan as a Chinese tourist and the protests he encountered should not be equated to the way Chinese tourists will be treated when they visit Taiwan,” Chen Chu said at Kaohsiung City Council.
Commenting on the bloody clashes between the police and protesters during the four-day demonstration organized by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to rally against Chen Yunlin's visit, the Kaohsiung mayor, a long-time DPP member, said she firmly believed in democracy and had always sought peace as a political and local official.
“In a democratic society, all actions to show support or opposition should be conducted in a peaceful manner,” she said.
She said the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should conduct soul-searching in the wake of the protests, in which a number of police officers, reporters and protesters were injured.
“The KMT government should redouble its efforts to communicate with the people, particularly when its policies are controversial and the people do not trust the government,” she said.
She also guaranteed the safety of Chinese athletes taking part in warm-up events for the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung.
“Politics is politics and sports are sports,” she said, adding that “sports should not be affected by politics, especially the most recent protests.”
Chen Chu made the remarks amid concerns that emotions running high in the wake of protests during Chen Yunlin's just-concluded visit might spill over and endanger the safety of Chinese athletes during the Games.
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