Taiwan nationalist on China trip

Mr Wu will meet Qian Qichen

By regional correspondent Damien Grammaticas

A senior figure from Taiwan's Kuomintang Party is making a landmark visit to China.

The party's vice-chairman, Wu Po-hsiung, is its highest-ranking figure to visit the mainland in 50 years.

He is expected to meet with China's Vice-Premier, Qian Qichen, and may hold talks with China's President Jiang Zemin.

Taiwan's media has said the authorities in Beijing attach great importance to Mr Wu's trip.

He is the vice-chairman of Taiwan's nationalist Kuomintang Party, the KMT, a former interior minister and secretary-general of the island's presidential office.

Enemies

The KMT and China's Communist Party have been bitter enemies for half a century. When the KMT were defeated in China's civil war in 1949, they retreated from the mainland to Taiwan.

They ruled the island, defying Beijing's demands for reunification, until they lost power in elections this year.

No senior KMT official was allowed to visit China while in office.

Mr Wu has said his trip is to attend a conference of members of the ethnic Hakka group in China's south-east Fujian province.