Mainland's top Taiwan affairs official to visit Kinmen

BEIJING - A delegation led by the Chinese mainland's top Taiwan affairs official is scheduled to visit the island's Kinmen County on Feb 7 and 8, a mainland spokesman said Wednesday.

Zhang Zhijun, head of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, will meet with Taiwan's mainland affairs chief, Wang Yu-chi, in Kinmen, said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the office.

Wang is head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council. The council said last week it will send an invitation to Zhang in early February.

Zhang will also meet with Kinmen's county head and talk to people from all walks of life to learn about their opinions of cross-Straits exchanges, Ma said.

The spokesman also talked about Zhang's recent attendance at a cross-Straits fisheries symposium in Fujian Province, saying that his office paid great attention to Taiwanese fishermen's advice and will expand cross-Straits agricultural and fisheries cooperation.

Ma said Taiwan should facilitate the export of agricultural products to the mainland.

The seventh meeting of the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Committee (ECC) will be held Thursday in Taipei. Zheng Lizhong, ECC mainland head and executive vice president of the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits; and Gao Yan, ECC chief representative and vice commerce minister, will head the mainland's delegation.