Taiwan, China hold dialogue on expanding trade ties

TAICHUNG - Taiwan and China Tuesday held a high-level dialogue on expanding trade ties as hundreds of pro-unification and pro-independence activists clashed outside.

The clashes erupted as pro-independence activists set a Chinese flag on fire and pro-unification activists tried to put it out.

The unrest occurred outside the hotel in Taichung in central Taiwan where Chinese negotiator Chen Yunlin and Taiwan negotiator Chiang Ping-kun were meeting.

They were expected to sign agreements on fishing cooperation, quarantine of farm products and unification of safety standards for industrial products at the summit, which Taipei said it hopes would ease tensions and enhance understanding across the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), had 60 cars and trucks circling the hotel with loudspeakers blaring, “Taiwan, China, one country on each side [of the Taiwan Strait]!”

Tuesday’s dialogue is the fifth Taipei-Beijing dialogue since 1993 and the fourth since President Ma Ying-jeou from the China-friendly Nationalist Party took power in May 2008.

The DPP has accused Ma of sacrificing the island’s sovereignty in the contacts with China, but Ma insisted that increased cooperation can only bring Taiwan peace and more business opportunities.