Chinese official roughed up by crowd in Taiwan
Both Taiwan and China condemn the attack, but the display of public anger complicates government efforts to ease long-standing tensions between the two sides.
Reported from Beijing — China condemned an attack on one of its officials in Taiwan today after he was assaulted by an angry crowd, an unwelcome incident at a time when the two longtime adversaries are trying to ease decades of tension.
Taiwan television showed Zhang Mingqing, vice chairman of a mainland association handling cross-straits relations, lying on the ground beside his eyeglasses. Other footage had an elderly woman hitting his car window with her cane and a pro-independence activist with a green headband stomping on his car roof.
This followed a similar incident Monday when 200 demonstrators yelled, cursed and heckled Zhang as he took the podium at the Tainan National University of the Arts. Zhang was in Taiwan for an academic symposium ostensibly in a non-official capacity.
Both China and Taiwan have an interest in preventing public anger from getting out of control, analysts said, as the two sides work to reduce tensions and boost transport, culture and business links.
"I strongly condemn the violence," P.K. Chiang, Taiwan's top negotiator on cross-straits policy, told a news conference Tuesday. "We want people to be more rational when others come from mainland China."
Beijing, however, was not soothed. The official New China News Agency condemned the incident, quoting a protest letter written by Zhang's semiofficial group, the Assn. for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits. "We are astonished at this," it said. And a spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office called for "severe punishment" for those involved.
China and Taiwan are scheduled to hold talks in the next few weeks on improving relations. They will be closely watched, and Chen Yunlin, Zhang's boss and leader of the same association, will head the Chinese side. China views Taiwan as part of its territory. The two sides parted ways in 1949 after an extended civil war.
"Regardless of what position [Zhang] holds, he's still our guest," said Hsu His-tsun, a Taipei commercial driver. "We should arrest those people and convict them. This is bad for Taiwan's image."
In recent months, President Ma Ying-jeou has made improved relations a cornerstone of his administration, although Taiwan remains deeply divided politically.
Much of the anti-China anger in Taiwan comes from supporters of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, which until May presided over eight contentious years under the leadership of then-President Chen Shui-bian.
