2010-05-12 15:11

BEIJING - Liu Qibao, Party chief in southwestern Sichuan province, is scheduled to visit Taiwan from May 23 to 28, the latest in a series of visits by mainland heavyweights to the island amid warming ties.

Liu, at the invitation of the Kuomintang (KMT), will lead a delegation for exchange activities in the areas of economy, finance, education and culture, Yang Yi, spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said here Wednesday.

During his visit, Liu will express thanks to Taiwanese people for their help after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

Wednesday marks the second anniversary of the devastating May 12, 2008, earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people.

Liu's delegation will also meet with various Taiwan circles, inspect local enterprises and transport facilities, meet local people, as well as attend cooperation forums and cultural performances, Yang said.

Liu will be the latest in a string of provincial government or Party committee heads to visit the island to seek cooperation, in a sign of increasingly solid cross-Strait relations.

Earlier this month, the governor of China's eastern Fujian province, Huang Xiaojing, paid a six-day visit to Taiwan to push forward cooperation between the two regions that face each other across the Taiwan Strait.

According to Yang, Fujian and Taiwan reached a number of cooperation agreements through Huang's visit concerning Fujian enterprises' investment in Taiwan and Fujian's purchasing of Taiwanese farm products.

In April, Party chief of central China's Hubei Province, Luo Qingquan, led a one-thousand-strong delegation for a seven-day visit to Taiwan.

Also in April, Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng visited the island to promote the 2010 World Expo.