Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Lien Chan, honorary president of the Taiwanese nationalist party, arrived in Beijing yesterday for a "private visit", during which he will meet with Chinese president Hu Jintao. In the meantime, the new government of Taipei has appointed a well-known supporter of the movement for the island's independence, Lai Shin-yuan, as president of the Mainland Affairs Council.
Lien is a veteran of "icebreaking" visits to the mainland: in 2005, in fact, he became the first prominent Taiwanese politician to return to China since the exile of the Kuomintang in the former Formosa, which took place in 1949. At his arrival at the airport, Lien downplayed the event, calling it "a private visit".
Accompanied by his wife and by two magnates of Taiwanese industry - Jeffrey Koo and Yen Kai-tai - Lien was welcomed by Li Bingcai, vice-president of the Straits Exchange Foundation. Immediately afterward, the president of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Jia Qinglin, arrived to have lunch with the visitors.
During the visit, the Taipei delegation will visit the Olympic Park in Beijing. There, a sculpture by Yuyu Yang, a famous artist of the island, will be unveiled, representing "peace between Beijing and Taipei". The statue is a gift that Lien presented to Hu Jintao during his second visit to China, in 2006.