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TAICHUNG, Taiwan: A Taiwanese policeman was injured and six protesters detained in a scuffle on Wednesday night outside the hotel of a top envoy visiting from China, an official said.
The incident marked the first injury and arrests since Chen Yunlin arrived in the central Taiwan city of Taichung on a trip which anti-Beijing activists fear could strengthen Chinese influence on the island.
The protesters set off fireworks from a van while Chen was having dinner at his nearby hotel, according to a police spokesman, Liu Yen-tsai.
The police officer tried to board the van and was injured when he was pushed and fell from the vehicle, hitting the ground with his forehead, Liu told AFP.
"The six were arrested, while the injured officer was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment," Liu said. A government statement described the police officer's injury as "serious".
The six people, detained on charges of causing injury and risking public safety, were later handed over to prosecutors for questioning.
The leading opposition Democratic Progressive Party released a statement calling for peace and calm.
Chen, on his second-ever visit to the island which China claims as its own, was heckled throughout the day, beginning in the morning, when protesters threw shoes at large photos of him and Taiwan's pro-Beijing President Ma Ying-jeou.
In the afternoon, he was met by dozens of demonstrators at a temple for sea goddess Mazu, who is honoured on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Some waved banners urging Chen, the representative of an officially non-religious regime, to swear before the goddess that China will remove missiles targeting Taiwan.
"We'll follow him wherever he goes," said Philip Wu of World Formosans for Independence, which advocates Taiwan's formal breakaway from the mainland.
President Ma, who took office in May last year, has been pushing for closer ties with Taiwan's giant neighbour, and relations are now better than at any time since the two split at the end of the 1949 civil war.
However, many of Taiwan's 23 million people remain concerned about China's threat to use military force to bring about reunification, underlined by more than 1,000 missiles pointing towards the island.
Taiwan's top China policymaker, Lai Shin-yuan, reportedly brought up the missile issue when she met Chen on Wednesday, saying the weapons made the people of Taiwan "uncomfortable".
Chen replied that China needed "some time" to discuss the issue, according to the United Daily News, a Taipei-based daily.
The Chinese envoy signed three documents with Taiwan on Tuesday - on food quarantine, industrial standards and fishing crews - bringing to 12 the number of deals inked since Ma became president.
Next on the agenda for 2010 is preparation for a sweeping trade agreement, which Ma's administration argues will bring growth and employment to the crisis-hit island.
Taiwan's anti-China opposition has rejected the plan, saying the agreement will actually cost more than a million jobs and erode the democratic island's hard-won de facto independence.
"It's understandable that some people in Taiwan feel concerned about the agreement," Chen said at a business conference Wednesday, addressing a part of the island where pro-independence emotions are particularly strong.
"But there's no need to be afraid. We need time to sort out the problems," he told his audience. - AFP/de
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