Taipei - Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Monday announced it will stage a large-scale march next weekend to protest against a planned visit by China's top negotiator Chen Yunlin. "The theme of our protest includes opposition to a one-China market, opposition to hollowing out of our sovereignty to China and opposition to the impotent Ma Ying-jeou government," said DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsan.
He said any people, including former president Chen Shui-bian, who support the theme are welcomed to join the DPP's protest on October 25.
Chen, who quit the DPP in August after he was implicated in an alleged money laundering scandal, has expressed his interest in taking part in the protest. In a bid to keep its image clean, the pro-independence party has been trying to distance itself from the ex-leader who has been embroiled in a string of corruption scandals.
Under the plan, the party will mobilize tens of thousands of its supporters to first take part in a large-scale march in Taipei before rallying in front of the Presidential Office.
China's top negotiator Chen plans to visit Taipei between late October and early November for a second round of high-level talks with his Taiwanese counterpart Chiang Pin-kung on shipping, flight and financial market cooperation issues.
His visit was made possible after Ma of the China-friendly Nationalist Party was elected president in March. Since taking office in May, Ma has been pushing for improvement of cross-strait relations, soured by the pro-independence DPP in the past eight years when Chen Shui-bian was president.
But the DPP has strongly opposed Ma's China engagement policy, seeing it as a selling out of Taiwan to China, which has long considered the island an integral part of the mainland subject to eventual union, if necessary by force.
