Taipei - Taiwan will designate a zone for protestors to prevent them from obstructing the Taipei-Beijing dialogue to be held in Taiwan next month, an official said Wednesday. Kao Kung-lien, vice chairman of the Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF), made the remark in response to the opposition Democratic Progressive Party's plans to demonstrate when the dialogue takes place in Taichung, central Taiwan.
The pro-independence party opposes the talks because it fears the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party may help Beijing to achieve its goal of Taiwan-China unification.
Democratic Progressive Party Taichung city councilor Fan Sung-yu warned that "there will be clashes, sacrifice and will cause panic, otherwise it is not protest."
Yang Yi, spokesman for China State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, on Wednesday asked Taiwan to guarantee the safety of the Chinese delegation.
"We have made thorough preparations to maintain order, and have designated a protest zone outside the venue of the dialogue," the foundation's Kao said.
"Protests are common in democratic countries, but they should be expressed in a rational way," Kao added.
The dialogue will be held in late December. Taiwan and China will jointly announce the date of talks soon, Kao said.
It will be the fourth Taipei-Beijing dialogue since President Ma Ying-jeou took office on May 20, 2008. The chief negotiators for the dialogue are SEF chairman Chiang Ping-kun, and Chen Yunlin, chairman of China's Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait.
At the previous talks, Taipei and Beijing signed a dozen pacts on opening sea, air, postal and tourism links.
Chiang and Chen are expected to sign four trade pacts and to discuss a proposed free trade agreement.
The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement is expected to be signed next spring. It would be the most important trade pact signed between the two sides that split at the end of the civil war in 1949.
