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Taiwan-born senior China official arrives in Taiwan
1999-01-30
TAIPEI - China's most senior Taiwan-born official arrived in Taiwan on Friday for an informal 11-day visit as head of a delegation of ethnic minority artists. Lin Liyun, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee since 1973 and a delegate for Taiwan in the Chinese legislature, was mobbed by the local media upon arrival at Taipei's international airport. Although Lin's visit is for unofficial cultural exchanges, her presence attracted a lot of attention since she also is an adviser to China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), the semiofficial body handling ties with Taiwan. ARATS Chairman Wang Daohan has promised to visit Taiwan at an appropriate time this year and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) suggested earlier this month that he visit in early spring, but timing and details for the trip have yet to be worked out. The visit might be discussed when Lin meets Shi Hwei-yow, SEF secretary general, on Saturday morning, the semiofficial Central News Agency (CNA) reported. However, earlier this month ARATS Deputy Secretary General Yang Xiaoming, who came to Taiwan to attend an academic symposium, canceled a scheduled meeting with Shi when confronted with Taipei's demand that they talk on the Wang visit. On Saturday, Lin is scheduled to participate in a symposium on the performing arts of ethnic minorities in China and Taiwan before touring the island to hold exchanges with aboriginal people. She will also visit her former home in the county of Taichung in central Taiwan. Lin, who was born in 1933 during Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan, moved to Japan with her family in 1940. She grew up in Kobe and moved to mainland China in 1952, three years after the Communist takeover. A fluent speaker of Japanese, she served as interpreter for Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other Chinese leaders in contacts with Japan, including crucial talks paving the way for the normalization of ties in 1972. [Kyodo]
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