Taiwan group vows to throw eggs at China envoy during landmark visit

TAIPEI, Nov. 1 Kyodo - A Taiwanese pro-independence group promised Saturday a reward of up to $300 to
anybody who can hit top Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin in the face with an egg, as
part of protest activities planned during Chen's landmark trip to Taiwan next
week.
Chen, who directs Beijing's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits
(ARATS), is due to arrive in Taipei on Monday as the highest-level Chinese
official to visit the island.
A semi-government agency, ARATS conducts negotiations and direct contact with
Taiwan for China.
Despite a revival of bilateral talks as part of measures to thaw cross-strait
ties, a broad swath of the public opposes Chen's visit, which they see as
kowtowing to Beijing by Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou.
Leading that charge is the Northern Taiwan Society, a group of political
activists who has vowed to throw eggs at Chen as part of what the opposition
Democratic Progressive Party said would be large-scale protests in Taipei
during Chen's stay.
''Since China targets Taiwan with 1,200 missiles, we will target Chen with
1,200 eggs,'' Michelle Wang, vice chairman of the Northern Taiwan Society, said
in an interview over the phone.
The group, Wang said, will give the equivalent of $300 to any egg-thrower who
scores a hit on Chen's face, while any egg-thrower who hits Chen's body will be
rewarded $30.
Rewards for confirmed face and body shots, she said, were increased from $30
and $6, respectively, after Taipei announced last week some 7,000 police and
other security personnel would be guarding Chen and his delegation. ''We had to
offer more cash because it'll be pretty hard to nail Chen with all those cops
around,'' she added.
China, according to the Taiwan military, targets Taiwan with more than 1,200
ballistic and cruise missiles in a bid to prevent formal independence on the
self-ruled island.
Since Ma, who took office May 20, has vowed to bury the hatchet with China,
cross-strait relations have warmed dramatically.
Stalled for a nearly a decade, formal cross-strait negotiations emerged less
than a month into Ma's presidency, with the two sides inking in Beijing pacts
on air and tourism links.
Chen's visit is for a second round of talks on further economic cooperation.
Four agreements, Taipei says, will likely be signed on more air and direct
cargo links, food safety and postal connections across the strait, 160
kilometers wide.
Besides the Northern Taiwan Society, the DPP is planning sit-ins near the
island's parliament and a big protest march to Chen's hotel. Last month, a
DPP-organized rally saw hundreds of thousands of protesters throng Taipei to
rail against what they said was the island's loss of sovereignty under Ma.
Ma's conciliatory approach to China has irked the island's pro-sovereignty
advocates, who worry that Ma's soft line toward Beijing could nudge the island
toward unification with its communist rival.
Further stoking the tension is China's latest toxic food crisis, which has
sickened a handful of people in Taiwan and rattled the local food industry.
Chen has apologized to Taiwan for excessive amounts of melamine, a toxic
industrial chemical, in food products imported from the mainland, which is
itself still reeling from a melamine-tainted milk powder scandal involving four
infant deaths and tens of thousands of sick babies.
DPP protesters last month jostled and jeered a senior ARATS official on a
private visit to test the waters for Chen's trip.