A Chinese provincial governor visited Taiwan's south Sunday, making him the highest-level mainland official to visit the area since one of Beijing's envoys was attacked there in 2008, officials said.
Governor Huang Xiaojing of Fujian province arrived in Tainan, a city considered a stronghold of the island's pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), at the invitation of a local group.
"We wish more people from Fujian and Tainan would visit each other," he told reporters. Huang led a delegation that visited Taipei last week.
Despite many locals being fiercely opposed to China, there were no protests surrounding Huang's visit.
Hung Yu-feng, a Tainan city councillor affiliated with the China-friendly Kuomintang party, told AFP that Huang was the highest-level official from China to visit the city since an attack on a Beijing envoy in October 2008.
Zhang Mingqing, vice president of China's quasi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, was pushed to the ground by city councillor Wang Ting-yu and other opposition supporters while visiting a temple.
Ties between Taipei and Beijing have improved markedly since Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang came to power in 2008, pledging to boost trade links and promising to allow in more Chinese tourists.
But Ma's China policy has sparked concern among the pro-independence camp, who accuse Ma of selling out to Beijing, an allegation he has flatly denied.
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