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Mainland envoy to meet Taiwan leader despite threat

By Xing Zhigang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-06 06:43

TAIPEI -- Beijing's top envoy on Taiwan affairs is set to meet island leader Ma Ying-jeou on Thursday despite an opposition threat to "lay siege" to their meeting venue.

Chen Yunlin, president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), is scheduled to meet Ma this afternoon at the Taipei Guest House, according to the agenda provided last night by the island's Straits Exchange Foundation.

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Chen is the most senior mainland envoy to visit the island since 1949.

A meeting of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) central committee on Wednesday pledged to press ahead with the "siege" plan today.

Although police had rejected an application to protest, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen urged all party members to lead a siege of the Taipei Guest House to protest Ma's meeting with Chen.

Tsai said she estimated that as many as 100,000 people will take part in the rally.

Local media quoted Tsai as saying that she would not rule out the use of "radical ways" to express the party's position.

DPP lawmaker Wang Tin-Yu, who incited a mob to attack ARATS deputy chief Zhang Mingqing during a trip to southern Taiwan last month, arrived in Taipei on Wednesday to join the protest.

DPP spokeswoman Cheng Wen-tsang said on Wednesdaythe party would use trumpets and loudspeakers to "make the voice of Taiwan people heard by Ma and Chen".

Local media reports said Taipei had mobilized 3,000 police officers and erected barricades around the meeting venue to repel the protest.

At a banquet hosted by People First Party chairman James Soong Wednesday, Chen Yunlin said he had heard of, and seen, protests against his trip.

"There are still misunderstandings about us among some Taiwan people. Some existing problems that can only be resolved later have even led to their dissatisfaction," he told hundreds of guests.

"I have heard and seen (the protests) and I was prepared for them before I came here."

Chen, however, stressed that "there is no reason to back away from" the road of pursuing cross-Straits peace and development, which has won support from a majority of people on both sides.

Last night, DPP supporters led by Tsai protested near Taipei's Grand Formosa Regent Hotel, where Chen was meeting Kuomintang chairman Wu Poh-hsiung. By 1 am, he was still unable to leave because of the protest.

Local TV footage showed a CCTV news anchorwoman and a reporter, who had come to cover the cross-Straits talks, being shoved around by the demonstrators.

After several minutes of clashes with the protestors, police finally managed to escort the two away from the crowd.