In apparent retribution over the Dalai Lama’s visit to the island, China has canceled or postponed several events “meant to highlight its rapidly improving relations with Taiwan,” AP reports:
The Tibetan spiritual leader’s visit, aimed at comforting victims of last month’s deadly typhoon, has posed the most serious challenge to relations between the island and the mainland since President Ma Ying-jeou took office 15 months ago on a platform of ending 60 years of hostility.
Taiwan’s ruling party said it sent an emissary to China last week to try to explain why Ma approved the visit.
“Beijing’s attitude toward this is important to us, so we tried to explain to them about Taiwan’s thinking,” Nationalist Party Deputy Secretary General Chang Rong-kung said.
He did not say how China responded.
