Chinese official looks to charm Taiwan during landmark visit

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By Ben Blanchard and Michael Gold BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - China's top official in charge of Taiwan ties will make a landmark visit to the island this week to try to woo Taiwanese who remain suspicious about a pending trade pact as well as meet a senior figure from the pro-independence opposition. Zhang Zhijun, director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, will be the first head of the body to visit the self-ruled and democratic island, where defeated Nationalist forces fled after losing a civil war to China's Communists in 1949. His trip from Wednesday to Saturday will focus not on the affluent capital Taipei but on the poorer middle and south, which have benefited less from trade with China and where pro-independence sentiment can run deep. While China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has never ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control, relations have improved markedly since China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008.




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