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MAC head doesn't rule out visiting China

ROC Central News Agency

2008-05-23 21:17:16

    Taipei, May 22 (CNA) Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan said Friday that she would not rule out the possibility of visiting China under the principles of equality, dignity and need. "Should the two sides of the Taiwan Strait enjoy positive interaction in the future, I would like to visit the mainland in my capacity as MAC head," Lai said, adding that she has no plans to make a trip to China for the time being.

    Lai, the Cabinet's top China policy coordinator and a former legislator of the pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union, made the remarks while meeting with a group of foreign journalists.

    Asked whether she would welcome a Taiwan trip by Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office under China's State Council, Lai said that Chen is always welcome to visit the country but he needs to file an application through the two intermediary organizations -- the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation and the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.

    Lai noted that the two sides have many issues to negotiate, and she expressed confidence that long-suspended cross-strait negotiations would resume soon.

    The MAC head also told her guests that in principle, she does not object to lifting a ban forbidding China's state-run Xinhua News Agency and the People's Daily newspaper to post correspondents on the island.

    She said there is no timetable for removing such a ban, however, and that such a decision would be up to the Government Information Office.

    The former Democratic Progressive Party government banned the two Chinese media outlets from posting reporters in Taiwan in April 2005 on the grounds that the two organizations only aired rumors or opinions from the "extreme ends of Taiwan's political spectrum."

    Taiwan first allowed Chinese media organizations to post reporters on the island in February 2001.

(By Luis Huang)

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