Breakthrough in ties between DPP and Beijing
Economist breaks a taboo by holding meeting at office of Taiwan's main pro-independence party
A mainland government adviser's visit to Taipei this week for talks with the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party marked the start of reciprocal contact between Beijing and the pro-independence party.
Economist Wu Jinglian , a senior research fellow at the State Council's Development Research Centre, visited the DPP headquarters just a month after a landmark visit to Beijing by former DPP chairman Frank Hsieh Chang-ting, during which he sought to build ties between the mainland and the DPP.
Wu visited a DPP think tank at the party's Taipei headquarters on Wednesday.
Taiwanese pundits said yesterday that given Wu's official status, his meeting at the DPP headquarters signalled a change in cross-strait policy by Beijing, with such exchanges no longer taboo. Hailed as the conscience of mainland economics for his steady push for economic reform, Wu is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and deputy director of its economic committee.
Joseph Wu Jau-shieh, director of the DPP's policy co-ordination department and a former head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, confirmed Wu Jinglian had visited DPP headquarters.
"We had talks for more than an hour, mostly on economic issues facing China," Joseph Wu said, adding he would rather describe it as an "academic exchange" than an exchange between the Communist Party and the DPP.