Taiwan’s top China policymaker – Wang Yu-chi – spent the day on Tuesday paving the way for a visit by his Chinese counterpart. The visiting official is the director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhang Zhijun, who is set to make his first trip to Taiwan on Wednesday.
At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Wang – who is the head of the Mainland Affairs Council – spoke about the top priority for the visit.
“This trip is primarily to ensure that officials from both sides will make regular visits. These regular visits by officials from the two sides will regularize the channel of communications between the Mainland Affairs Council and the Taiwan Affairs Office. I think that’s the biggest and most important goal,” said Wang.
Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is calling on Zhang to get a better understanding of the people of Taiwan during his upcoming trip. The call was relayed by the head of the DPP’s China policy division, Chao Tien-lin, in a press conference on Tuesday.
“We’d like to encourage him, during this trip, to be earnest and make an effort in trying to understand the true thoughts and opinions of the Taiwan people,” said Chao.
Chao said that the DPP views normalized exchanges between Taiwan and China as positive. However, he said, those exchanges must comply with the principles of sovereignty, equality and democracy. Chao said that the exchanges must not hurt Taiwan’s interests; negotiations cannot be held without democratic oversight; and all related talks and arrangements must be transparent.
As for calls by several NGOs to protest during the Wang-Zhang meeting, Chao said that Taiwan is a democratic society and freedom of expression is commonplace. He said that the DPP will take it as it comes, and urged the government and people to do the same. Chao said that he has not received any word of plans by his party to mobilize people to join in the protests.