China sends minister to Taiwan for first time

TAIPEI: China's most senior official ever to visit Taiwan arrived on the island Wednesday to discuss setting up liaison offices, sparking angry confrontations between pro-independence protesters and riot police.
The four-day visit by Zhang Zhijun, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, comes as a further sign of warming ties between the former bitter rivals, despite vocal opposition from those opposed to forging closer ties with Beijing.
Zhang, who holds minister-level status, arrived at Taoyuan airport in the north of this island around noon.
"It took three hours for me to fly here from Beijing, but it took 65 years for both sides across the Taiwan Strait to come this far," said as he sat down for talks with Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Minister Wang Yu-chi.
"I come here full of sincerity in my heart," said Zhang, the first head of the Taiwan Affairs Office to visit the self-ruled and democratic island where defeated Nationalists fled after losing a civil war to China's Communists in 1949.
His four-day trip will focus not on the affluent capital Taipei but on the poorer middle and south, which have benefited less from trade with China and where pro-independence sentiment can run deep.
Wednesday's visit marks the most senior-level talks between the two sides to take place in Taiwan.
Ahead of the discussions, demonstrators tried to break through security barriers outside the hotel where Wang and Zhang were to meet and clashed with riot police.
Dozens of pro-independence and pro-unification activists also clashed in the airport.
Analysts say the meeting represents a further step towards normalising ties between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland. The two sides are still technically at war despite tensions easing markedly since 2008 when Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang came to power.
Moves by Ma's administration to further embrace China have also been hampered by massive student-led protests in Taipei earlier this year.
Despite improved relations, Beijing opposes the island participating in international organisations as a sovereign state and considers Taiwan to be a part of China awaiting reunification, by force if necessary. - Agencies