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TAIPEI: China's top negotiator with Taiwan Chen Yunlin arrived in Taipei on Monday for historic bilateral talks in a further sign of warming ties between the traditional rivals.
Chen, head of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), is the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit the island in almost six decades and has brought with him a delegation of more than 60 officials and business people.
He landed amid tight security at Taiwan's international airport just before midday (0400 GMT) for a five-day visit during which he will meet his Taiwanese counterparts, as well as the island's President Ma Ying-jeou to discuss a range of economic issues.
Officials have said that more than 7,000 police have been deployed to ensure Chen's safety, after his deputy Zheng Lingqing was jostled and knocked to the ground by anti-China protesters while visiting the island last month.
Chen waved briefly to waiting reporters as he descended from his chartered flight to be met by Kao Koong-lian, the secretary general of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation, the local equivalent of ARATS.
ARATS is authorised by Beijing to handle civilian exchanges with Taipei in the absence of official contacts.
On the agenda for talks in coming days are additional regular passenger flights and shorter routes between the island and China, direct cargo flights and shipping links, direct postal links, and food safety issues.
Chen was expected to make a brief speech at a welcoming ceremony at Taipei's Grand Hotel soon after arriving.
A small number of protesters gathered outside the hotel where they tried to release coloured balloons, on which were written slogans about China's tainted food products.
Taiwan has joined a long list of countries and territories to ban Chinese dairy products, after some were found to contain a toxic industrial chemical, melamine, which has been linked to the illness and deaths of children in China.
Chen's presence on the island has become a flashpoint for protest by a section of the 23-million population who fear that closer ties between Taipei and Beijing could erode the island's sovereignty.
Supporters of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party plan to stage large demonstrations throughout Chen's stay.
- AFP/yb
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