Taiwan's labour minister will become the first minister-level official of the Lai government to travel to China, a symbolically loaded trip that Taipei is framing as normal international participation.

• Labour Minister Hung Shen-han has received a formal invitation and will attend the APEC human resources meeting in Nanjing on 21 September.
• Taiwan is going as a full APEC member, and the trip is being framed as equal participation with equal dignity.
• Safety worries are being played down: more than 300 Taiwanese trips to APEC meetings in China since December have passed without incident.
• Taipei has asked Beijing again to guarantee the delegation's safety, and lawmakers warn of possible political snubs or unequal treatment.
• He will skip the international skills competition in Shanghai, seen as riskier, and stick to the closed-door ministerial meeting where diplomatic convention applies.

Outlook: The trip will be watched as a test of whether Beijing lets Taiwan participate on equal terms, with any snub likely to inflame cross-strait politics.