France's prime minister arrived in Beijing Sunday for meetings with Chinese leaders amid expectations of improved business ties now that relations have warmed a year after the French president angered China by meeting with the Dalai Lama. Prime Minister Francois Fillon will meet with President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and the head of China's national legislature, Wu Bangguo, during his three-day visit. The two sides will sign a series of agreements to boost trade ties. The visit comes a year after China froze relations between the countries because French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking Tibetan independence from Chinese rule. Sarkozy's meeting with him prompted China to cancel talks with the European Union and sparked a popular Chinese backlash against French products. Sarkozy restored contact with Hu during international summits in the United States in April and September and bilateral visits of high-level officials have since increased. Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming visited France last month with a delegation of Chinese business leaders. Fillon, who is expected to be accompanied by a large business delegation, did not make remarks to reporters upon his arrival at the airport Sunday. In an interview with China's official Xinhua News Agency, Fillon said that France hoped to strengthen cooperation with China in nuclear power, aviation, environmental protection, medical services and other fields. The French prime minister's visit comes ahead of a visit to China by Sarkozy next year. French business leaders have worried the political scuffle over Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama would affect trade with China. After the meeting it suspended high-level contacts and shut France out of lucrative European buying trips by Chinese delegations. Meanwhile, high-level talks between Taiwan and China on the island this week are likely to be met with protesting crowds wary of Beijing's embrace, analysts said. Senior envoys from the two sides, still not formally at peace after a civil war 60 years ago, will meet in the central Taiwan city of Taichung to discuss deceptively mundane issues like double taxation and agricultural quarantine. The China relationship overshadows any other political issue in Taiwan, as Beijing insists reunification is just a question of time, even though the island has governed itself since 1949 and become a democracy in the meantime. This inevitably affects any bilateral encounter, including this week's talks between China's Chen Yunlin and Taiwan's Chiang Pin-kung, the respective heads of quasi-official agencies handling ties in the absence of formal relations. The most controversial item on President Ma's immediate agenda is a bid to enter into a trade deal with China, known as the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), some time next year. Tens of thousands of opposition demonstrators marched through the streets of the central Taiwanese city of Taichung Sunday. Under a leaden gray sky, the demonstrators chanted pro-independence slogans and waved anti-China banners to protest the visit of China's top Taiwan negotiator, Chen Yunlin.
