《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Rallies continue to haunt ARATS chair in visit to Tainan

By Wu Chun-feng / Staff reporter

During his tour of Taiwan, China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits （ARATS） Chairman Chen Deming （陳德銘） has been met with protests virtually everywhere he has gone and his visit to Greater Tainan yesterday was no exception.

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Chen arrived Taiwan on Tuesday for an eight-day trip — the first senior Chinese official to visit since Taiwan since the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections.

After touring the east of the country on Friday and Saturday, Chen traveled to Greater Tainan’s Rende District （仁德） yesterday, where he met Dharma Master Cheng Yen （證嚴法師）, the founder of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, to explore cross-strait volunteer endeavors.

Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Lin Join-sane （林中森） attended the closed-door meeting at the headquarters of the organization’s Tainan chapter.

As the meeting was taking place, Taiwan Solidarity Union’s （TSU） Tainan branch director Chen Chang-hui （陳昌輝） led a group of protesters in a rally against the cross-strait service trade agreement outside the venue.

After the meeting, which lasted about 40 minutes, Chen Deming commended Tzu Chi for its contributions to charity and disaster relief, adding that he had gained valuable insight into how China can promote volunteering, in particular among young people.

Chen Deming told the press that in the meeting, he had sought Cheng Yen’s view on several issues, particularly on future exchanges between young volunteers on both sides of the Strait.

“The course of nature would easily lead cross-strait relations to develop in a smooth, peaceful way if China harbored more goodwill toward Taiwan, as well as love and a sense of empathy. It need not send Chen Deming over with such a big delegation to ‘monitor’ Taiwan’s governance,” Chen Chang-hui said.

Accusing China of using economic means to try to restrict Taiwan politically, Chen Chang-hui said the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement （ECFA） and the proposed trade in goods agreement are “sugar-coated poison” being offered by China as it bids to further increase Taiwan’s economic reliance on it.

Chen Deming then went to Tainan’s high-speed railway station, where more than 100 Falun Gong practitioners were waiting, holding banners reading: “Stop oppression” （停止迫害） and “The heavens cannot tolerate it” （天理不容） that referred to what they say are the Chinese Communist Party’s violations of human rights.

Chen Deming is to take part in the two-day Cross-Strait CEO Summit in Taipei today.（Additional reporting by CNA）

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES