TAIPEI: Blind Chinese lawyer and activist Chen Guangcheng hopes to visit Taiwan in June, a rights group said Friday, as the island's government said a visit could help facilitate understanding with China.
Chen and his family plans to arrive in Taipei on June 23 for a 20-day visit, according to the Taipei-based Taiwan Association for Human Rights, which has organised the trip.
"Primarily Chen will meet with people from the Taipei lawyers' association and advocates who have dedicated themselves to the island's judicial reforms," Yang Sen-hong, the head of the rights group, told AFP.
The 41-year-old has been living in New York since May last year after a dramatic escape from house arrest to the US embassy in Beijing.
The office of President Ma Ying-jeou said it had not formed an official position on the planned visit, but Taiwan's top China policy decision-making body, the Mainland Affairs Council, reacted positively to the proposal.
"We welcome any visit to Taiwan by people from the Chinese mainland as long as they can apply for entry with the authorities according to the regulations.
We believe such visit will help facilitate understanding between the two sides," the organisation said in a statement.
Chen has no plans to meet political figures during the trip, Yang said.
"He is interested in how Taiwan has revised its laws in the process of democratisation, and he feels the experience of Taiwan may be used as a key reference to push for China's reform once he is allowed to return to Beijing."
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