The vice chairman of Taiwan's main opposition Nationalist Party will lead a delegation to China next week despite strained relations across the Taiwan Strait following Beijing's enactment of a controversial anti-secession law, officials said Tuesday. "Our Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung will leave for the mainland from March 28 to visit Guangzhou and Nanjing before returning to Taiwan on April 1," said Chang Yung-kuo, spokesman of the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT). He said Chiang is to visit the martyr shrine in Guangzhou to pay respects to revolutionists killed during an uprising against the Manchu Qing dynasty. Chiang will also pay homage to the statue of Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Chinese republic, at his mausoleum in Nanjing. Chang declined to say whether Chiang and his delegation would hold talks with Chinese officials. The pro-unification party has remained silent over the expected talks since March 14, when the Chinese parliament passed the anti-secession law, which authorizes military force against the island if Taiwan officially declares its independence from China. Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still regards Taiwan as a part of the mainland subject to eventual union, if necessary, by force. Taiwan lashed out at Beijing for enacting the law, which it claimed would give the Chinese military a "blank cheque" to invade Taiwan. Taipei said the legislation would only further fuel cross-strait tensions and upset regional stability.
