Taiwan is sending a cabinet minister to China for the first time under President Lai Ching-te, and Beijing is expected to quietly undercut the trip by treating him as a Chinese citizen.

• Labor Minister Hung Sun-han will attend an APEC meeting in Nanjing in late September, entering on the APEC invitation alone.
• Beijing insists the visit follows the "one China" principle, hinting Taiwan officials still need a Chinese-issued travel permit.
• Taiwanese officials say China will secretly process that permit on his behalf, without his knowledge, so it can count him as a Chinese national.
• Taipei calls the move a face-saving trick and says the same thing was done to earlier officials.
• Security risk is seen as low: hundreds of Taiwanese officials have made similar trips, and Hung is not on Beijing's list of "diehard separatists."

Outlook: The trip will likely go ahead without incident, setting up a bigger test when the APEC leaders' summit lands in Shenzhen in November.