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Xiamen Mayor Plans to Visit Taiwan
A mayor from the Chinese mainland is planning to make a historic visit to a port city in Taiwan.
Zhu Yayan, mayor of Xiamen in East China's Fujian Province, said in a letter yesterday that he would like to visit Kaohsiung at the invitation of his counterpart Frank Hsieh.
"The letter was sent to the Taiwan side today at noon and they have yet to respond," a spokesman with the Xiamen municipal government said yesterday in a telephone interview.
The spokesman who gave only his surname Li, said the visit scheduled for July 18-20 aims to promote economic and cultural exchanges between the two port cities.
Zhu would be the first Chinese mainland high-level leader to make a formal visit to Taiwan since 1949.
The Kuomintang party forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 at the end of a civil war.
The Chinese Government has committed itself to the pursuit of a peaceful reunification through its policy of "one country, two systems."
Zhu's plan has been approved by the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, the top body in handling cross-Straits ties, according to the spokesman.
"We think the Kaohsiung side also needs to ask for approval from the Taiwan authorities," Li said.
Li told China Daily the talks are expected to focus on a direct shipping link between Xiamen and Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second-biggest city.
Kaohsiung is Taiwan's biggest port and Xiamen, across the Taiwan Straits, is a key outlet for exported goods made by Taiwanese-funded mainland factories.
A detailed itinerary of the visit and the size of the delegation are still under discussion, the spokesman said.
"Our mayor accepted the visit because Hsieh once said 'the relationship between Xiamen and Kaohsiung should be that of two cities belonging to the same country,'" Li said.
The Chinese mainland has set the one-China principle as a precondition for resumption of cross-Straits talks.
The planned visit came as a sign of easing cross-Straits tensions, which have grown in the past few months since s pro-independence Democratic Progress Party (DPP) member Chen Shui-bian became Taiwan's new leader.
Hsieh, chairman-designate of the DPP, extended his invitation for Xiamen's mayor to visit his city in early July. He also expressed interest in visiting Xiamen in his capacity as a mayor.
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