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TAIPEI: Dozens of pro-independence activists demonstrated on Monday against a rare visit by a top Chinese government official to Taiwan.
Zhang Mingqing, vice president of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, arrived on Sunday amid tight security.
He gave a speech at a seminar on Monday at a university in the southern Tainan county, a stronghold of the pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Television images showed Zhang being interrupted by a student who held a sign reading "Taiwan is independent, not part of China".
"I was told in advance that Tainan people have the reputation of hospitability...I did not expect I would be greeted in such way. This may help me increase my knowledge," Zhang later told his audience.
Outside the university, dozens of people chanted slogans and held protest signs reading like "Red China, Get Out", "Safeguarding Taiwan Sovereignty" and "Taiwan, China, One Country Each Side" to oppose Zhang's visit.
The trip comes as Taiwan arranges a new round of cross-Strait negotiations after talks in June led to the launch of the first regular direct flights between China and Taiwan in nearly six decades.
The DPP is scheduled to hold a mass rally Saturday against the arrival of the Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin.
No itinerary has been finalised for the talks but newspapers here have said they will be held in Taipei between late October and early November and will focus on cargo flights and shipping links.
Trade and travel links between China and Taiwan have been severely restricted since the two sides split at the end of a civil war in 1949.
Tensions across the Strait have eased since Ma Ying-jeou took office on May 20 pledging to improve ties with Beijing.
China considers the self-ruled island to be part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.
- AFP/yt
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