Mainland's Taiwan affairs chief makes landmark Taiwan visit

Zhang Zhijun (L front), director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council, arrives in Taipei of China's Taiwan on June 25, 2014 for a four-day visit. [Photo: China News Service / Chen Xiaoyuan]

Unfazed by protests, Zhang Zhijun stepped off the plane at Taipei's Taoyuan International Airport on Wednesday and extended greetings in the local Minnan dialect.

"I'm afraid I don't speak it so well, but I speak these words with all my heart," said the head of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office.

Traversing decades of war and standoffs between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan since 1949, Zhang made this long-awaited trip to Taiwan as the first Taiwan affairs chief from the mainland to do so in 65 years amid warming cross-Strait ties.

"I know that Taiwan is a society of diversity and it has mixed voices on many issues. That's why I hope to have more contact with locals from all walks of life, especially grassroots people, so as to understand their lives, thoughts and their opinions on cross-Straits relations," Zhang said at the airport amid both welcome and protest.

"I want to know the real Taiwan," he added.

FRUITFUL OFFICIAL MEETING

Zhang held a formal meeting with Wang Yu-chi, Taiwan's mainland affairs chief, in Taoyuan, in the north of the island, at the start of his four-day visit.

This was the second formal meeting between the chiefs of cross-Straits affairs from the mainland and Taiwan. Wang visited the mainland in February.

"The overall situation of cross-Straits relations has been stable and new progress has been made this year," Zhang said during the meeting.

"Despite some new circumstances, the direction of peaceful development of cross-Straits ties has not changed and exchanges and cooperation in various fields have not been suspended," he said, adding that the fundamental reason for these trends is that promoting peaceful development of ties is the mainstream opinion of both sides.

Zhang called for enhanced trust, exchanges and political basis between the two sides to ensure that the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations is not interrupted.