Su made the remarks while fielding questions from lawmakers about the planned visit by Chen Yunlin, China’s top liaison with Taiwan and president of Beijing’s quasi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS).

Speaking during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, Su said that the issue of whether President Ma Ying-jeou would meet Chen is being arranged by the NSC, the Mainland Affairs Council and ARATS’ counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), following past precedents.

Su noted that Chiang Pin-kung, Chen’s Taiwanese counterpart in his capacity as SEF chairman, met Chinese President Hu Jintao during a visit to Beijing in June.

Addressing some lawmakers’ concerns over the protocol arrangements for a possible Ma-Chen meeting, Su asserted that Ma will certainly uphold dignity and parity when meeting with Chen.

But Su did not disclose whether Lien Chan, honorary chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), would attend the annual informal leadership summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on Ma’s behalf.

According to Su, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been working on a list of possible representatives for Taiwan to the leadership summit. But Su said he was not in a position to make the list public.

Chen is slated to visit Taiwan in late October or early November, and will hold talks with Chiang in a follow-up to a landmark meeting between the two men in Beijing in June, in which the two sides clinched two accords on weekend charter flights and Taiwan’s wider opening to Chinese tourists.

Issues regarding cross-Taiwan Strait transportation services, including the establishment of regular cargo charter flights and expansion of weekend passenger charter flights, as well as financial supervisory cooperation and crime fighting, will be high on the agenda of the second round of talks.

Chen would be the highest-ranking official from the People’s Republic of China ever to visit Taiwan.

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party and several pro-independence groups have announced that they will jointly organize a large demonstration on Nov. 2 to voice their anger about President Ma’s policies of building closer relations with China, and what they consider to be his administration’s poor performance since taking office on May 20.