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Taiwan’s top China policy-maker Andrew Hsia met with his Chinese counterpart Zhang Zhijun on the outlying Taiwanese island of Kinmen.
Head of China’s Taiwan Office, Zhang Zhijun, arrived in Kinmen on Saturday. Supporters and protestors of the meeting gathered in the morning, and minor scuffles broke out between the people gathered there and the police.
In his opening remarks, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia said relations between Taiwan and China in the past seven years have improved significantly. But he also said good cross-strait relations will have to be built on dignity, respect, peace, and security.
During the two-day meeting, the two sides will discuss issues including Chinese tourist stopovers in Taiwan, the cross-strait trade in goods agreement, and the establishment of offices in each other’s territories.
Hsia is also expected to push Taiwan’s bid to become a “full” member of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). That’s after Taiwan’s bid to become a founding member of the bank was rejected in mid-April.
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The government statistics office revised Taiwan’s 2015 GDP growth down to 3.28% largely on the back of worsening export performance.
The office said on Friday that the downward revision of 0.5 percentage points was due to lackluster demand in both domestic and overseas markets.
The office said that the initial tally of Taiwan’s GDP growth for the first quarter of 2015 is 3.37%, 0.09 percentage points lower than its previous prediction.
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Taiwan has attended the US Pacific Command Amphibious Leadership Symposium (PALS) for the first time. On Thursday Taiwan’s defense minister Kao Kuang-chi said that military exchanges between Taiwan and the US are continuing normally.
In a press release on Wednesday, the US Marine Corps said high-ranking military officials, including those from Taiwan, talked about ship-to-shore tactics, the capabilities of their respective militaries, and new opportunities to work together in the future. They also observed an amphibious landing by a unit of US Marines.
The Pentagon has not responded to questions about whether the PALS will become a routine annual meeting or whether Taiwan will be a regular invitee in the future.