China woos Taiwan trade with bid to open offices

Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Zheng Tuobin invited Taiwanese businessmen to open offices on the mainland and offered to send commercial representatives from Peking to Taipei. The New China News Agency said he also offered to supply Taiwan with coal and oil at preferential rates and to ensure that trade between the mainland and the breakaway province was not hindered by red tape.

Mr. Zheng's remarks followed Peking's recent call urgint Taiwan to take part in party-to-party talks and offering nationalist officials an unspecified role in the government of a reunited China.