Mainland cancels events following Dalai's Taiwan visit

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-02 07:35

The mainland has canceled or postponed several events meant to highlight its rapidly improving relations with Taiwan, apparently in a show of dissatisfaction over the Dalai Lama's visit to the island, Taiwan's ruling party said Tuesday.

The Dalai's visit, ostensibly aimed at comforting victims of last month's deadly typhoon, has posed the most serious challenge to relations between the island and the mainland since Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou took office 15 months ago, the party said.

Deputy Secretary General Chang Rong-kung of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) said officials sent an emissary to the mainland last week to try to explain why Ma approved the visit.

"Beijing's attitude toward this is important to us, so we tried to explain Taiwan's thinking to them," Chang said. He did not say how Beijing responded.

The mainland has canceled or postponed at least two planned visits to Taiwan, and nixed ceremonies meant to mark the expansion of direct air service, said KMT spokeswoman Chen Shu-rong.

A mainland banking delegation, led by deputy central bank governor Su Ning, was to have arrived in Taiwan on Monday to attend a seminar sponsored by the private Taipei Foundation of Finance, but Beijing abruptly postponed the visit.

"We got a call from them saying they could not attend. They said they had to postpone the visit due to technical reasons and would not provide details. But I think you and I know why," foundation chairman Sunny Chou told AFP.

The mainland had already said its delegation would not join Saturday's opening ceremony for the Deaf Olympics in Taipei.

An official with China Southern Airlines, however, said no ceremony had been planned for the direct flights, saying budgets are tight and such flights have become routine.

Beijing had warned that the Dalai Lama's visit was "bound to have a negative influence on the relations between the mainland and Taiwan."

Ye Xiaowen, director of the mainland's State Administration of Religious Affairs, who is visiting Taiwan, was quoted by local media as asking: "Why invite a controversial lama who wears saffron robes and Gucci shoes to Taiwan to put on a show?"

The pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party invited the Dalai Lama to visit and comfort victims of the typhoon, which killed more than 500 people. Ma later approved the visit but said he would not meet the Dalai Lama.

A number of the Dalai Lama's planned appearances in Taiwan have been scaled back or canceled, prompting media speculation that Ma's government wants to show Beijing it is trying to rein him in.

But Ma's spokesman Wang Yu-chi denied the government was behind the program changes.

"His schedule was decided by the Dalai Lama himself, and we respect his decision," Wang said.

The Dalai Lama Tuesday led thousands in prayer at his first large-scale public appearance in the southern city of Kaohsiung since arriving in Taiwan.

China Daily, AP and AFP