Frank Hsieh breaks ice with warm mainland visit
Taiwanese heavyweight broke ice with Beijing but may fuel tensions within opposition party
Former Taiwanese premier Frank Hsieh Chang-ting's just-concluded mainland visit was viewed as an icebreaker in establishing better relations between the mainland and the island's main opposition party.
But analysts warned about reading too much into its significance. While some believe Hsieh's visit was a positive step towards influencing the Democratic Progressive Party's policy on Beijing, others say it will fuel tensions in the opposition ranks.
Hsieh, the most senior politician from the Beijing-wary DPP to visit the mainland, yesterday concluded his five-day visit that included meeting high-level officials such as State Councillor Dai Bingguo , State Council Taiwan Affairs Office Director Wang Yi and Chen Yunlin, director of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.
The meetings, though basically still limited to exchanging views without reaching any consensus, showed that Beijing took special interest in Hsieh's visit, hoping it could help open the door to better communication with the pro-independence DPP in the future, analysts said.
Stressing it was a private visit, Hsieh started in his ancestral home of Xiamen, Fujian . Throughout his trip, he was given cordial receptions, like those reserved for VIPs.
The visit "showed the mainland considered Hsieh's visit to be rather significant", said Liu Guoshen , of the Taiwan Research Institute under Xiamen University.