MAC denies China disallowing high-level visits to Taiwan
ROC Central News Agency
Taipei, Nov. 9 (CNA) The Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) denied Sunday that Beijing has canceled all high-level visits to Taiwan in light of the violent protests that were staged last week against a visit by China's top cross-Taiwan Strait negotiator.
Commenting on a United Evening News report Sunday that China's State Council has given instruction to immediately suspend all scheduled trips to Taiwan by ministerial-level officials for professional exchange purposes, MAC spokesman Liu Te-shun said the report is not true.
"If the report were true, we would have been notified. Up to this point, we have not received any such information," Liu reiterated.
According to the evening news, a delegation from China's Chongqing Municipality, to be led by a deputy mayor, was scheduled to arrive in Taiwan in two days.
The visit, however, was canceled abruptly by the State Council for fear of a reccurrence of violent street protests similar to those that greeted Chen Yunlin, president of the quasi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) , during his visit to Taiwan Nov. 3-7, according to the report.
Since Chongqing City is a municipality, its mayor and deputy mayors are considered as officials at the ministerial level, the evening news report said.
Chen, the highest-ranking Chinese official to have ever visited Taiwan since 1949, was met with daily protests during his visit in Taiwan. Several of the protests turned into bloody clashes between the police and opposition Democratic Progressive Party-mobilized protesters, with nearly 200 people -- police, reporters and protesters -- injured.
Chen's deputy, ARATS Vice President Zhang Mingqing, was mobbed by angry protesters during a visit to the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan in late October, forcing him to cut short his stay in Taiwan.
(By Deborah Kuo)
ENDITEM /pc
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