China envoy's trip to Taiwan still on despite attack

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top negotiator on Taiwan policy said on Thursday a trip to the island was still on despite this week's attack on a visiting Chinese official, state media reported.

Zhang Mingqing, vice chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, was pushed to the ground on Tuesday by anti-China activists on a visit to southern Taiwan. A day earlier he was heckled by about 200 demonstrators, telling him to go back to China.

China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Beijing has vowed to bring the island back under mainland rule, by force if necessary.

Zhang cut short his trip short by one day, flying back to China on Wednesday, throwing into doubt a visit by China's top negotiator, Chen Yunlin.

But Chen, chairman of the association, said he would "continue to make preparations" for the Taiwan visit.

"Both the Taiwan authorities and public strongly condemned the attack," Xinhua quoted him as saying. "It demonstrates that such activity, which is aimed at undermining the communication between both sides of the straits, is not popular among the Taiwan people."

Zhang also condemned the attack but said these "few people" did not represent the majority of the Taiwan people.

"A lot of Taiwan friends, some of whom even didn't know me before, contacted me to express their concern," he was quoted as saying. "Some others greeted me on my way to the airport and apologised for the extremists' assault."

Chen didn't give a date for his visit, but Taiwan's China Times newspaper said it would start on Nov. 3.

Taiwan's top negotiator, Wu Poh-hsiung, visited Beijing in June for the first round of formal talks since China-friendly Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May, easing decades of hostility.

The two sides are expected to sign deals on daily direct flights and direct cargo shipments, Taiwan officials say. Negotiators will also discuss food safety in light of China's tainted milk powder scandal.

The attack on Zhang would have minimal ramifications, said Zhang Zhirong, a Taiwan affairs scholar from Peking University. But he suggested that Chen apologise for the milk scandal, in which melamine-tainted products have been pulled from shop shelves around the world, once he arrives.

"Chen should grab the chance to show the mainland's sincerity so as to win the support of the Taiwan people," Zhang told Reuters by phone.

(Additional reporting by Ralph Jennings in Taipei; Editing by Nick Macfie)