Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng was low-key when asked in Washington, D.C. Tuesday about his planned visit to Taiwan in June, offering little in the way of a concrete itinerary but expressing his hope to learn everything he could about Taiwan.

Taiwan and mainland China will soon officially sign a service sector trade agreement as negotiations on the pact have concluded, officials from both sides confirmed yesterday.

There is no need for panic about having interactions with Chinese tourists amid cases of the new H7N9 flu reported in China, because there is no proof that the virus can be transmitted among humans, an official said yesterday.

Several members of mainland China's Pan-Blue Alliance in eastern Zhejiang province confirmed that they were blocked and interrogated recently by security agents when they paid homage to the tombs of the ancestors of Chiang Kai-shek, a former leader of the Kuomintang (KMT) and president of the Republic of China based in Taipei.

There is currently no basis for political negotiations between Taiwan and China because they have two different political systems, a spokesman for the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Tuesday, noting that China is ruled by an authoritarian regime.

Visitor arrivals in Hualien have increased significantly since direct charter flights were launched last year between the eastern Taiwan county and several cities in China, airport authorities said yesterday.

A Chinese official extended what he saw as an olive branch to Taiwan Monday, suggesting that the two sides work together to find an “appropriate way” of facilitating Taiwan's efforts to play a part in regional economic cooperation.

Former Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) yesterday met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the annual Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan province.

Former Vice President Vincent Siew, leader of Taiwan's delegation to the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2013, will unexpectedly sit in the second row at the opening ceremony, instead of the first row, according to sources.

Taiwan won the second most awards of any country at an annual invention fair in Moscow, with three elementary school students among Taiwan's gold medal winners.