TAIPEI - TAIWAN'S premier on Friday vowed to ensure the safety of a senior Chinese negotiator due to visit the island next month, after activists shoved his deputy to the ground in a potential set-back in ties.

Mr Chen Yunlin, president of the quasi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), is tentatively slated for a visit on November 3 in the first such high-level talks held in Taiwan.

'This (Chen's visit) is a very important matter. Our national security system and the police will collaborate... so that nothing will go wrong', Premier Liu Chao-shiuan said in parliament.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's pro-independence former president Chen Shui-bian on Friday branded Mr Chen Yunlin a 'rebel communist' and called for his 'apprehension'.

'The People's Republic of China is a fake government and the Chinese Communist Party is a rebel organisation. All Chinese officials including Chen Yunlin are communists and rebels,' the ex-leader told a gathering of supporters in Taipei.

'They should be apprehended and if he (Chen Yunlin) comes to Taiwan everybody can apprehend him.'

The outspoken ex-president is set to join a mass rally in Taipei on Saturday to protest Mr Chen Yunlin's planned visit and China's continued claim of sovereignty over the self-ruled island.

The visit will be closely monitored after his deputy Zhang Mingqing was jostled and pushed to the ground by pro-independence activists on Tuesday in southern Tainan - the ex-leader's hometown.

The episode triggered an angry response from the Chinese government, which demanded Taiwan severely punish the activists who manhandled Mr Zhang.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 after a civil war, but Beijing regards the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification.

Tensions have eased since Beijing-friendly Ma Ying-jeou took office earlier this year, promising to improve trade and tourism links with China following eight years of strained relations under the previous government. -- AFP