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Taiwan defends its turf during landmark visit by Chinese official

Taiwanese politicians told the highest-level Chinese official to visit Taiwan since 1949 that the island's political future should not be determined by the mainland.

Taiwan officials are urging a top Chinese visitor to let the self-ruled island decide its own political fate, despite Beijing鈥檚 insistence that the two sides eventually be united.

Zhang Zhijun, the first ministerial-level visitor to visit Taiwan from Beijing since 1949, is on the island through Saturday. Analysts see the visit as a chance to steady relations after the occupation of Taiwan鈥檚 parliament聽by students in March triggered 24 days of anti-China street protests.听

Mr. Zhang has avoided discussing sensitive political issues publicly on his visit, which Beijing describes as a chance for him to listen and learn. Taipei says the two sides will make no announcements during the trip. Mr. Zhang is scheduled to meet students, low-income families, and a fishing community.

But Taiwanese officials haven't been shy to pipe up about their determination that the island's political future should be decided at home, not by the mainland.听

鈥淭aiwan鈥檚 future should under the constitution be decided by Taiwan鈥檚 23 million people,鈥� the office of Wang Yu-Chi, Taiwan's China policy architect said Wednesday after his meeting with Zhang. 鈥淭his is also the consensus of Taiwanese people. We hope mainland China can give us that respect.鈥�

On Thursday聽Eric Chu, mayor of Taiwan鈥檚 largest city and a heavyweight in the ruling Nationalist Party, gave the visitor the same message.

Those comments are in direct contradiction to Beijing Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Fan Liqing's statement, made before Zhang left for his trip, that the island鈥檚 relation to China 鈥渟hould be decided by all Chinese鈥� rather than just Taiwan's residents.听

Analysts say Zhang will be careful not to rock the boat during his visit. 鈥淶hang will of course be cautious in his remarks,鈥� says Leonard Chu, a retired China studies professor from National Chengchi University in Taipei. 鈥淎t most he can be vague, but he will not go beyond the Communist Party鈥檚 official bottom line position.鈥� 聽聽

There have been minor protests during Zhang's visit, but nothing on the scale of this past spring or previous anti-China protests in 2008 and 2010.

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Mao Zedong鈥檚 Communists routed Chiang Kai-shek鈥檚 Nationalists. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up a rival government.

Since Taiwan鈥檚 President Ma Ying-jeou, thought of as conciliatory, took office in 2008, the two sides have set aside once- icy relations to sign 21 agreements giving a lift to the island鈥檚 economy and a better image of China among island residents.

China hopes those deals on trade, transit, and investment will soon lead to political dialogue, which Taiwan has resisted.

Protesters in March and April feared that Mr. Ma had gotten too close to China, which has not dropped military threats to force unification.

Those protests erupted after the same two officials, Zhang and Wang, met for the first time near Shanghai in February, followed by an effort in Taiwan鈥檚 ruling party-dominated parliament to fast-track ratification of a service trade deal with China.

The Beijing spokeswoman鈥檚 comment, though not a new stance, further riled Taiwan.

鈥淭he urgency of the issue was reinforced by Fan Liqing's recent reiteration of the PRC principle that Taiwan's destiny must be decided by all Chinese, meaning the top Chinese Communist Party leadership, rather than by the people of Taiwan,鈥� says Denny Roy, senior fellow at the East-West Center, a US research institute in Hawaii.