Taiwan's Ma to confirm warming China ties

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

TAIPEI (AFP) — Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou plans to bolster the island's ties with China later this month to coincide with the 50th anniversary of a battle between the cross-Strait rivals, an aide said Sunday.

Ma will fly to Kinmen, a Taiwan-controlled fortified island group just miles off China's southeastern Xiamen city, on August 23, and deliver a speech "of historic significance," the United Daily News said.

He is expected to extend an olive branch to Beijing during his speech on "rapprochement and peace," it said.

Ma's spokesman Wang Yu-chi confirmed the report.

"We're working on the plan... the president will make such remarks in Kinmen," he said, declining to provide details.

Despite commencement of civil exchanges since 1987, Taiwan...