We're listening, Xi Jinping says to Taiwan
President expresses interest in Taiwan people's concerns after massive Taipei protests, as he forges cross-strait ties with key emissary
President Xi Jinping yesterday said Beijing was willing to learn more about the concerns of the Taiwanese people as he met a key emissary between Taiwan and Beijing.
His comment during a meeting in Beijing with James Soong Chu-yu, chairman of the minor opposition faction People First Party came amid Beijing's planned charm offensive for the island following a wave of student-led protests in Taipei against a mainland trade pact.
"We'd like to know more about the practical needs of the Taiwan people, especially those [in] the grass roots," Xi said.
The mainland was also willing to "take proactive and effective steps to take care of vulnerable groups" in Taiwan, Xi was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
Claiming the trade service pact would lead to thousands of lost jobs and that closer ties with the mainland might erode the island's autonomy, some 200 Taiwanese students seized the island's parliament from March 18 to April 10, demanding the pact's withdrawal. Their move gained popular support, with half a million showing up in one major protest in front of the Presidential Office on March 30.
Wang Kung-yi, a professor of international affairs at Tamkang University in Taipei, said Xi's comments showed that Beijing had taken note of the protests, widely seen as the biggest threat to President Ma Ying-jeou's administration in recent years.