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Xiamen Mayor Cancels Planned Visit to Taiwan
The mayor of China's southeastern city of Xiamen cancelled his visit to Taiwan's southern port of Kaohsiung, two weeks after the port's mayor scrapped a trip to Xiamen.
Zhu Yayan, who is mayor of Xiamen in China's eastern Fujian province, scrapped his plans to visit Kaohsiung due to "obstruction by a certain department of the Taiwan authorities", Xinhua quoted sources at Xiamen's municipal government as saying.
His decision dealt another blow to already rocky relations between Chinese mainland and Taiwan, where the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Chen Shui-bian won the local elections in March.
Zhu was scheduled to visit Kaohsiung from July 18 to 20 at the invitation of its mayor Frank Hsieh, who is also the DPP's chairman-designate, media have said.
Earlier in July, Hsieh scrapped plans to visit Xiamen, formerly known as Amoy, after failing to obtain approval from the Taiwan island authorties.
The local government bans senior officials, including city mayors, from visiting the mainland.
Hsieh had said he hoped to use "city diplomacy" to break a stalemate in bilateral ties.
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